The Fallen Crown: A Girls und Panzer Story
by Montysmypython
Summary: Times have changed. Things are now very different in the Sensha-Do world, after the cataclysmic events in the week long battle.
1. Chapter 1

**The fallen crown: A Girls und Panzer story**

(This is a continuation of the story: The Longest Week)

**Chapter 1: Something old for something new**

* * *

**15 January, 21:30**

The deathly silence of the night was a pain on the ears, with the cold bitterness of the breeze freezing the air it travelled on. The silver ring of the young girl was shaking a little. Her soft hands were grasping on the cold gun, the barrel pointing towards Sarah. Sarah, only about two meters away, stayed frozen in place as tears rolled down her face with her black beret holding her pin curled brunette hair firmly in place.

"Please grant me one thing before you pull the trigger. Just let me have one final kiss with her" Darjeeling asked, her glassy blue eyes piercing the soul of the girl. The young girl gave an uneasy nod, but her arm holding the gun still remained aloft.

Darjeeling moved her hand not connected to Sarah's sweating tight grip and turned Sarah's frightened face towards hers. Sarah could feel a little warmth from Darjeeling's hand; she looked to Darjeeling and everything came out.

"Darjeeling I don't want to die please... and I don't want you to either… It's all my fault" she wept. Darjeeling squeezed Sarah's hand and wiped a couple liquid diamonds that were falling down her red cheeks. Sarah breathing began to calm as if a mother had saved her child from a nightmare.

"Sarah everything is going to be OK" she spoke as she lent in, with their lips landing slowly on one another as one of Sarah's tears crashing on top of the connected lips. Sarah closed her eyes, just wanting to feel this last joyful moment. Darjeeling's eyes darted to the girl, whose gun began to waiver. This was her chance, her last opportunity for life to still course through her and Sarah's bodies. She grabbed the beret off Sarah's head and threw it at the girl who panicked, firing a random unaimed shot, the bullet smashing into the bricked mansion house. Darjeeling pulled Sarah down with the hand holding hers. She charged at the girl fumbling with the gun as if it were made of butter. Darjeeling smashed the gun out of the girl's hand, knocking it onto the balcony floor with a hard thud.

In the commotion, and the noise, partygoers started to run out of the building in a mad panic scrambling out of the building as fast as they could. Beth, on hearing the gunshot, knew it must have been from the balcony. "Sarah!" she cried. She pushed her way through the youngsters trying to escape from the games room.

Darjeeling had grabbed the girl firmly by the throat, forcing her towards the railing of the balcony.

"You ... you bitch! I want to snap your neck like a twig for what you have done" she hissed. She squeezed harder, with the young girl trying her best to breathe, turning a dark red as she thrashed around trying to make Darjeeling loosen her grip but to no avail. Darjeeling knew what she was going to do, she let go of the girl who fell onto the hard, frozen floor holding her throat as she coughed and spluttered. Darjeeling looked across to the gun on the floor, then over to Sarah standing there, too distressed by what she had just seen to move or speak. Sarah just kept seeing the flashback of watching James die in her arms as he wiped the tears out of her eyes as he made one last smile towards her, his eyes closed and it was all over. It still haunted her as it repeated over and over in her head without stopping. The smile, his grey eyes, the dark red blood, her transparent tears.

Darjeeling picked up the gun, the sweat from the girls hand still making it hard to grasp.

"Call the police. Now!" Darjeeling firmly shouted to Sarah, finally snapping her out of her trance.

"Ye...yes Dar… Dar … jeeling. Th… thank you." Sarah clumsily took out her phone. Moments seemed like hours as Sarah made the call. "Po...pol...police please… someone tried to kill … me wi...with a gun... We are at… a place called L...Lake...Lakeside Manor."

Darjeeling put the icy gun in her grasp making sure it would not leave her hand. "Who sent you?! Why did you want us dead?!"

The girl seemed to curl up into a small ball on the floor like a scared, injured dog; her head laying on her arms and her knees on her chest.

"The Anti - Sensha-Do league. Got wind that James was the one who leaked the information out to Shiho Nishizumi. The man dressed as a doctor was sent to kill Maho, Miho and Sarah out of revenge."

She looked over to the shaking Sarah who was still holding onto her phone for dear life, with the operator trying to calm her down but which only seemed to add more fuel to her burning emotional state.

"James was to feel the pain for not stopping his sport, by killing his little sister, but lucky for her..." She nodded towards Sarah. "...He was there with her, so he was innocent in this regard. But as both parties were under heavy guard, so our man had to make a guess of who was where as he must of known he was not going to get all three. It was just luck to see who would be killed, and it seemed Miho and Maho had luck on their side as they were in the other room." She gave a little smile. "But I do wish he had got all three, as all three including James don't deserve life as they are the scum of the earth like you, Darjeeling"

The door opened with Beth filling the frame of the open space the door had left; her long blonde hair fluttering in the breeze, reminding Sarah that she was a member of the living. Beth took hold of Sarah and hugged her with all the energy she could muster. "You're alive Sarah, you're OK" she blubbered with a grateful smile. Sarah slowly but surely wrapped her arms around her previous commander's waist; the warmth of Beth's body slowly calming her down ever so slightly. Her phone was still screaming frantically at Sarah as small blue lights danced across the horizon and the faint sound of squealing sirens echoed over the countryside.

Beth moved her head up from Sarah's shoulders and her eyes landed on the red uniform of Darjeeling with her hand firm on the firearm pointed at this young girl on the floor.

"How dare you! You're a liar - nothing more and nothing less... You deserve nothing more than pain and suffering for what you and your group have done to all off those poor girls who died at the hands of your group of peace! Including my dearest friend James!" Darjeeling looked down the sights of the gun. The girl's head was an inviting target and she couldn't miss at such a close range.

"Tell me! Why today!? Tell me why you had to kill me and my lover today!" she barked at the young girl, whose eyes were now fixated onto Darjeeling's deep blue ones.

"Poetic justice they told me." She looked to the floor and then up to Darjeeling once more. "Please just let me live, I beg of you, please..." The girl's voice was one of regret but her crooked smile and the fist that her hand now formed said otherwise.

"Do you know this saying?" Darjeeling said through gritted teeth. "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." Her hand gripped the gun tighter.

"Darjeeling, please put it down for Sarah, I beg of you" Beth spoke rather desperately towards Darjeeling. "You're better than them, you're better than her. James lost his life to save Sarah, don't do the same with yours. I have had enough of people that I loved dying..." Beth's voice slowly drowned in her tears. "I loved your brother Sarah, I'm not going to deny that! He was a special person to everyone..." Sarah just squeezed Beth harder as she couldn't bear to hear any more. A moment of silence passed, as the whistle of the wind freezing wind increased. Darjeeling's index finger covered the trigger. Nothing in her life had ever felt so hard to do, with the gun feeling heavier and heavier, until she lowered the gun and threw it off the balcony, where it crashed onto the gravel driveway below.

Darjeeling looked down upon the young girl on the floor. "Your justice will come" she growled towards her. Two large SUVs with bright piercing blue lights skidded on to the grave path of the manor. Eight men in dark black police uniforms handling sub machine guns leaped out of the cars and as people pointed out to them where the gun shot had rung out from, they made their way up towards the balcony.

"STAND STILL! HANDS UP NOW ALL OF YOU!" one of the officers shouted as they entered the games room pointing their guns at the four girls on the balcony. Beth and Sarah instantly did so with Darjeeling following suit. The girl just remained on the floor. The officers slowly approached them guns trained on all four of them. "IS SHE HIT?!" an officer shouted at the group.

"No, she's the shooter. She is disarmed" Darjeeling responded, not moving a muscle. The officers reached Sarah and Beth first. Two officers pointed their guns at them as two other officers patted them down for weapons, with Sarah's phone still chattering away in her hand. Both we then promptly handcuffed as their hands were placed behind their back. Sarah and Beth were dragged out by the two officers taking them downstairs and towards the SUVs the driveway. They moved to Darjeeling and repeated the same process.

"Get up slowly!" the officer barked at the girl only a couple of meters ahead of him still laying still on the floor. She looked up and pushed off the floor and charged making a beeline for his gun. The officer covering him fired hitting her in the thigh, she collapsed and held the wound as the blood pulsed out of her leg.

"I'm going to kill everyone of you for that! Especially Darjeeling! She will die slowly and painfully!" the girl raged. The officers quickly and forcefully handcuffed her as they applied first aid to her leg.

Sarah could see the SUV ahead of her with more police and ambulances arriving by the second. "Sarah! Sarah!" Her dad pushed past a police officer holding people back and away from the SUVs. The armed officer stopped who was escorting Sarah out raised his gun at Sarah father.

"Don't take another step or I shoot!" he yelled as he flicked his gun off safety. Sarah's dad

stopped and raised his hands above his face.

"I want to see if my daughter is OK. Please!" he begged.

"Is he your father?" the officer asked. "Yes he is sir" Sarah replied. The officer gestured with his hand to slowly come forward. Sarah's dad moved slowly until he could touch her. His face was exactly like when when she saw him for the first time after James died, full of relief and guilt. He gently kissed her forehead.

"Sarah I'm sorry, I thought you would be safe. I'm sorry. I can't and wouldn't be able to live if I lost you too" he said.

"I'm fine dad please, don't worry about me" she said as her tears joined his. "Darjeeling saved both of us. Please thank her."

* * *

**January 28th 3:27 PM**

The days rolled on with the police interviews seeming never to end, detectives, counter terroism and even MI5 and MI6 wanted every little bit of information about what happened that night, until finally it ended once they were satisfied with all the information gathered. Sarah had her eyes closed resting her forehead on the mirror in her room of the small cottage, her suitcase on the bed full of her belongings. She took a step back from the mirror, the weather reflected the mood; overcast with light rain tapping against the closed plain glass window.

"Sarah do you have everything?" A soft voice entered the room from outside her door.

"Yep, mostly" she responded back taking a step back opening her eyes. Her brown hair was rather roughly put back together as odd bits of hair seemed to not wish to be apart of her pin curls. Her father's look followed her down to her clothes; a plain white T-Shirt and blue denim jeans.

Her father entered the bedroom and sat at the end of the well made bed with the suitcase just behind him. He looked over to his last child, his precious daughter. "You'll be fine at St Gloriana. I've been informed that you and Darjeeling will be safe there" he said rather compassionately.

She turned and looked at him. "Dad, come with me please. I want you safe as well… Darjeeling could arrange you some housing… anything you need. Just come with me." She moved towards him and sat next to him on the bed.

"I would do but I just can't. This is our home. Mum and I bought this home I couldn't ever sell it. The memories we had together her were so …" He looked around her room with some of the white paint on the walls peeling off from the rather barren bedroom. "... great. Me and your mum painted this room for you when you were still in the womb. At this time we didn't know if you were going to be a boy or a girl so we though to go with a neutral colour, as before this room was a really bad seventies wallpaper so that had to go…" He sighed as he looked at a small corner of the room with small muti-coloured hand prints painted onto the canvas wall, some were large whilst some where extremely small, he slowly moved his gaze down to his hands on his lap and then to Sarah's. "... Sarah this is going to be the hardest thing I'm ever going to tell you."

She looked at his body, hunched forward, as he took deep breaths to control his breathing as well as water his mouth to say these heavy words.

"You were not going to be the only girl in this family… Mum was...she was off to see… her doctor when it happened…" His tears began to fall on the floor with Sarah taking ahold of his hand. "... she died so suddenly but your sister…" He looked at her and shook his head. "... they did everything to save her… she was only at seven months... I'm sorry I never told you or James but… it was hard enough knowing you lost your mother… and to lose a sister you never got to meet…"

The heavy blow hit her swifty but something was different. She knew it deep in her heart that it must have been something bad which had happened to her mother, which is why it was never really talked about but for it to be as such a tragic event like this, it really did put a burden on her that she had never felt before, to feel so alone but yet she felt rather relieved. There could be no more secrets between the two of them. She took a couple of minutes to compose herself, looking over to him she wiped a couple tears from his cheek. "Dad, you did nothing wrong. You have brought me up so well, Mum would be proud of you for how I have turned out. Dad, I will do everything to make you, James, Mum and my sister proud of me." She looked to the suitcase inside which was the framed picture if all four of them together; her sitting on her mother's lap as a baby crying hysterically, while toddler James stood next to his smiling dad.

"You are the perfect daughter Sarah I could never have asked for a better one… Just keep safe." He muttered back to her as he hugged her. "Darjeeling has said she will look after you. She has given me her word… And I will know that she will keep you safe as she loves you so dearly."

"She will." Sarah added back, she stood and moved over to her suitcase. "Thank you Dad for telling me this. I feel this will give me more motivation to do anything and everything to the best of my abilities" she added with firm resolve.

"Sarah Lilly Alexander. You show the world! You show them what the Alexander name means and represents!"

"I will base it off my old school Boston High our motto was 'Per Aspera est Tranquillitas' which means 'Through the Rough to the Calm' and now the storm is over and we will reach the calm waters of merriment."

He stood and embraced her; his arms around her, his eyes not moving off hers and slowly he moved his head forward over her shoulder. "You will do great things Sarah I have no doubt of that" he whispered into her ear.

She took a step back. "I love you Dad."

She opened the door and left, the suitcase rolled softly over the carpet and onto the hard wooden landing.

* * *

**January 29th 00:43 AM GMT**

The journey was always going to be long and laborious, so as the commercial plane began to cruise with the even the dark grey clouds below looking small and significant lights making up a huge spider web of a city, she settled into her business class seat. As she planned to do she started to watch old battles with James as commander of Bovington or vice commander at London United, noting down every little detail from his positioning of tanks in a certain formations, to ways of defeating an enemy attack. She just could never really quite put her finger on what made him so capable. Was it is leadership style? His understanding of his enemies decision making? His moves seemed so rash and so un-thought out, but it seemed so precise and deadly to his opponent.

"Why can't you be easy James?" she muttered to herself. She skimmed rather anxiously through her laptop, viewing the documents on every commander in the JSF that Assam and her had complied over the time she had worked for St. Gloriana's intelligence department. Her mouse danced around the screen with it falling on Miho Nishizumi.

"Well, I have to update your info based on your emotional scars you probably received and how that would affect your performance" Sarah said rather blankly and opened up the report. She glanced at the words on the document, but something looked suspicious, she looked at the notepad that contained the information she had made on James as she compared the both of them, both styles where rather similar the rather unusual and uncouth manner of their fight was so obvious to see.

"If I want to learn more about James I need to learn from Miho Nishizumi's style. And anyway she could beat James with ease. She has so much raw talent coming from the Nishizumi family. Me or James could never have… but… if I can just beat her. I can prove myself, and if I prove myself then I can show the world what the Alexander name means. I will never ever be in my brother's shadow ever again." She wrote on her notes on James. 'Beat Miho - learn for her, learn from her enemies, her weakness is ...?'

She set off to work on the mission to prove herself, to beat the best. But there was only one person who had ever beaten Miho. And had done it twice. She needed to know everything from her and luckily for her lover would be happy to help, she assumed. Which reminded her she needed to get a 'thank you' present.

* * *

**January 30th 09:56 JST - Tokyo airport**

The plane landed after the nearly day long flight, but Sarah didn't care. For her, this was the most productive she had ever been. The jet engines slowly spooled down and the door was opened to fresh Tokyo air. Sarah gathered her laptop and small bag she carried with her as she left the plane and began to walk down the jet bridge but was greeted by four Japanese police officers and the end waiting for her. "Sarah Alexander. Yes?" the tallest of the four said. She nodded rather hesitantly not sure if this was a trick or not, as she looked for the closest exit if they were not who they said they were.

"We will be escorting you to the St. Gloriana Girls College helicopter however for safety reasons it cannot be for this airport" he said as he passed Sarah a piece of paper with the St Gloriana logo with lots of writing about 'the safety of this student is paramount...' with the signature of Darjeeling clear as day on the bottom of the piece of paper. After reading it and being convinced it wasn't a fake, he gestured forward as she walked with them walking past the luggage carousel.

"But my luggage bag?" She asked.

"It will be scanned making sure nothing was put into it maliciously" he said again. They made their way out of the airport in a large black SUV with two police cars with police officers inside the vehicles, one ahead and one behind, with taxis driving by like bees to the hive.

"Could I please ask for a favour? Could you allow me to get some flowers as a present?" she asked as she patted down her jeans, finding her wallet and taking out some notes. "I know you will say 'no', which is fine, but could one of your men please do it for me?"

He looked at his men and then back to her and the money in her hand. "That's 6500 yen. That's a lot for flowers" he said as he took the money.

"Just get the most beautiful flowers and use all the money. Oh, could you make sure that there are red roses in them as well please?"

The motorcade travelled the long route through the main city, not stopping for traffic, and heading for a military airfield on the outskirts of the city. After they had passed the gate security, the helicopter came into view through the front windscreen It was a dark red rather modern one with the logo of the school on the side of the tail.

The SUV pulled up alongside it and the door was opened from the outside by one of the escorting officers. Sarah took her seatbelt off and slid out of the car, her feet landing on the firm concrete floor. A police car joined them and the passenger in the front opened his door. In his hand was her large bouquet of flowers with red roses, blue irises, green chrysanthemums and large sunflowers in the middle. He walked over to her and passed it over delicately. She smelled the sweet perfumed flowers and could feel a smile on her face naturally occurring.

"Thank you so much. If you have any change please keep it for yourself as this is better than I could have ever imagined" she said. He nodded, keen not to get involved in a debacle. His colleague opened the boot of the police car and took out her suitcase and rolled it over to the helicopter, placing it inside for her.

She looked over to the head officer and bowed in his direction. "Thank you sir for keeping me safe. I wish you and your men forever happiness."

"Thank you" he replied. He held open the door of the helicopter as the rotas began to slowly spin. She moved forward to sit in the creamed coloured leather seats, she sat and placed the headset over her ears with the door being closed as she did so. The engine began to whine as the power increased and the helicopter lifted off. "Next stop home." She thought to herself as she laid the flowers in the pair seat next to her.

The flight wasn't as long as she expected - the helicopter landed only after a half hour flight. She could still see the rough outline of the land on the horizon out of her window with the deep blue sea sloshing passively side to side. The pilot expertly placed the helicopter down on the deck. Sarah was none the wiser that they had landed due to the softness of the landing.

"Thank you for the flight pilots" she said over her headset.

"No problem - all in a day's work" was the calm response. She heard flicking of switches and in turn the engine noise gradually faded. Sarah looked out of the window and saw her, Darjeeling, in her school uniform no more than ten meters away. Sarah grabbed hold of the flowers and opened the door, carefully stepping out not to fall out and look so foolish. Both feet on the ground, she looked up from her shoes and over to Darjeeling. Both her hands were by her side, her face was hard to tell as this distance was she happy to see Sarah or not as both her eyes were closed.

She walked over to her. "I got you these" she said rather timidly to Darjeeling passing over the large bouquet to Darjeeling. She opened her eyes as she took hold of the flowers.

"Do you know this saying? Gratitude is the sign of noble souls" she replied.

Sarah nodded her head. "It's an old one but I don't know who first coined the phrase". She looked down at her casual shoes. "These are for what you did that night, is there anything I can do to repay you?"

"There is nothing that needs to be repaid" Darjeeling responded back, as calmly as ever. But Sarah knew there was, she leaned in to feel those lips again, finally without there being such an emotional anchor placed on her heart. She closed her eyes, but there was nothing except the light breeze kissing her lips. Then there was a pressure placed down on her shoulder. she opened her eyes and saw Darjeeling's arm was there stopping her.

"That's rather un-lady like Miss English" her senior said.

"But...I thought that..." she stammered.

Darjeeling put her index finger over her own lips. "No one is to know about this relationship, all I did that night was a ploy to stop the assassin. It meant nothing, because you have a boyfriend in the UK, don't you?" she winked.

"Yes… yes I do" Sarah respond rather shyly.

"Good answer! You are to unpack at your studio and get some rest. Tomorrow I will see you in your school uniform at the main Tea Room at ten AM for an important meeting."

"Yes, Miss Darjeeling!" Sarah replied.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - A young heart of blue**

* * *

**11th February, The Tea Garden, 09:03 - The Handover (11 days after Sarah landed in Japan)**

"If I might have your attention please ladies?" Darjeeling spoke at no more than a quiet conversational level, but she was the sort of person that didn't need to raise her voice in order to command the attention of others. The girls assembled in the old wood panelled meeting room inside the Sensha-do house (or 'tea rooms', as they were known) instantly fell silent. Darjeeling had a quick inspection of the girls around her. The numbers of the Sensha-do students had taken a steep nose dive. Parents had been forcing their daughters not to take part out of concerns that the sport was still not safe. Some girls just gave up out of fear as well. Others had simply moved on; this being their last year and final exams looming around the corner. From the A team pool, a total of about ten tanks could be crewed at one given time, compared to nearly three times that number about three months ago.

"Welcome ladies" Darjeeling was being very formal and evidently enjoying herself, but a little saddened by the lack of faces in front of her. "This is the first formal meeting of the St. Gloriana Sensha-do Team since the tragic events of the week-long match that we participated in. As I am sure you are all fully aware, the JSF has offered its sincere apologies and has launched a full investigation into those events. I'm sure you are also aware that the JSF is offered counselling and support for anyone who took part in that match, and I encourage anyone to take up that offer if they feel they need it."

Darjeeling continued. "The JSF have also put together a new tournament for this spring. There is no obligation for any school, especially those involved in the week-long match, to take part. However, after discussing the matter with the new commander-elect, in the spirit of 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends', we have decided that St. Gloriana will compete."

Rukuriri flicked a glance at Sarah, who was sitting next to her, as she wrote 'William Shakespeare' in small letters on the page of the open notebook on her knee. Sarah gave a surreptitious wink accompanied by the faintest of nods.

Darjeeling continued: "Which brings me onto my second point. I shall be graduating soon and so will Assam. We have both therefore decided to stand down and concentrate on our final exams."

"I shan't need the extra revision time; but Miss Darjeeling, however…" Assam teased from where she sat on one of the armchairs. There was a titter of laughter from the other girls.

"No comedians, please" Darjeeling said in a stern voice although her eyes showed that she didn't mind her friend's teasing.

Sarah quickly scribbled 'Nigel Green in film 'Zulu' 1964' in her note book where Rukuriri could see. Rukuriri slightly raised a surprised eyebrow. Sarah smiled, pleased to have scored a point against her friend.

"Before I formally hand over command of the team, it is my last and sad duty to pay tribute to the friends and colleagues that we lost in the last match," Darjeeling said solemnly.

Darjeeling looked over to the wall of the suite and everyone's gaze followed hers. Edged with a wooden frame, the wall was adorned with a portrait of Lady Grey in her red St. Gloriana Sensha-do uniform. It had been Darjeeling's idea, in agreement with Lady Grey's parents, that the school would commission such a picture, which had been drawn and painted from photos of Lady Grey. Two copies had been made; one for her parents and this one, which now hung on the wall of the Sensha-do team's headquarters. There was a black ribbon across one corner and the words "in memoriam" inscribed on a plaque at the bottom. That too had been Darjeeling's idea - she insisted that things like were better when written in Latin.

Underneath Lady Grey's portrait were framed pictures of the other girls who had died during that hellish week. There were the 'Anglerfish' crew; Saori, Hana, Yukari and Mako, alongside the photos of those they had not known so well; the BT-5 crew and the loader from the IS-3 from Pravda. The pictures were of varying quality, taken from social media or other sources, but each was similarly adorned with a small black ribbon as a mark of respect.

Absent from the memorial wall was James, Sarah's brother. There had been talk about putting pictures of him and Lady Grey together, since they had secretly been in love, but after discussions with the families it was felt that, as they had deliberately kept their relationship a secret while alive, it would not be fitting to publicise it now. Sarah had also not wanted to have to see a picture of James every time she came into the HQ suite. He was commemorated separately at home and within the Tankery clubs that he had been part of.

Darjeeling spoke touchingly about the loss of their colleagues and friends and how the school and Sensha-do would be poorer for their loss. There were quite a few damp eyes by the time Darjeeling had finished. After a moment's silence she ended with: "It is not length of life, but depth of life."

Sarah's pencil was poised yet still above her notepad. Rukuriri, however, wrote 'Ralph Waldo Emerson' on her own pad where Sarah could see it. Sarah gave a tiny shrug.

Turning back to them, Darjeeling smiled a warm and inviting smile.

"It is now my pleasure to hand over this team to its new commanders!" Darjeeling said with a smile. None of the changes in the command structure were a surprise to anyone, but Darjeeling liked to announce things formally and properly.

"Firstly, taking over from me, I would like to welcome Orange Pekoe as the new Commander of St. Gloriana's Sensha-do team!" There was a smattering of polite applause, but nothing wild. This was St. Gloriana after all, not a bunch of hooligans like Saunders.

Orange Pekoe blushed and grinned, looking around at everyone.

"Going forward we will have two Vice-Commanders. One will be Rukuriri, who will also take over Assam's role as Head of Intelligence. The other will be English Breakfast…"

It had come as something of a shock to Sarah when she had been invited to a meeting with Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe only the day after she had returned from England, and learned that her name had been put forward as a Vice-Commander. Part of her had immediately assumed this was some sort of practical joke, but the others convinced her that they were very sincere. Of course, all her plans and ambitions that she had thought about on the flight now seemed even more possible and she quickly accepted the offer without any further discussion.

Now that it was officially announced she found she was a little taken aback; going from being a relative nobody (albeit a tank commander in the Chindits, but nothing very special in the eyes of fans, other schools players, too even her own teammates in St. Gloriana) to suddenly now a Vice-Commander.

She felt herself blushing as her name was called out but this was because of her sudden promotion. She'd previously found her tea-based nickname to be rather embarrassing but had eventually just got used to it. That had now changed, however. She'd only recently learned that her late brother James had been involved in choosing it for her, and had obviously made sure that it was something as embarrassing as possible! This gave her a lot of comfort, as well as some pride; now every time she heard her nickname it was like he was sharing a joke with her.

She realised she'd been thinking about James while Darjeeling was still talking.

"...Rosehip will continue in command of the 'Chindits' where her… unique talents… can be put to best use!" Darjeeling said with a smile. Rosehip just grinned.

'_So, there we have it'_, Sarah thought. She was now a Vice-Commander of one of the most prestigious Sensha-do teams in the world! She was slightly annoyed not to be Assam's successor, but despite her now excellent command of Japanese, it was not her native language and she could see why this could potentially be an issue in intelligence work. Rukuriri had been a good protégé of Assam and Sarah was sure that GI6 was in safe hands.

"I know St. Gloriana will continue to be a shining beacon of chivalry and elegance in the Sensha-do world under its new leadership. After all, 'if everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself'. And for the two ladies guessing the authors of my quotes, that was from industrialist Henry Ford!" Darjeeling shot a look at Sarah and Rukuriri as she said this. Rukuriri stiffened and blushed, but Sarah couldn't help but chuckle. Nothing, it seemed, could escape Darjeeling's meticulous eye for detail.

"So without further ado, I shall let Orange Pekoe explain the Spring Tournament to you!" Darjeeling left her position in front of the group of armchairs and sofas and came to sit on Sarah's right. Darjeeling's hand sought out Sarah's and she gave it a small squeeze.

Orange Pekoe now took centre stage, looking a little daunted by the occasion. Nonetheless she put on a serious face and began her short speech of thanks to Darjeeling. It was formal and to the point, and mercifully free of quotes and idioms.

"So… the Spring Tournament!" Orange Pekoe announced with some excitement in her voice and eyes. "This will be a completely different style of tournament to those that we're used to. It's a trial format of a points-based league."

There was some widening of eyes at this statement and a few murmurs. Rosehip repeated the words 'points based league' to herself, as if the repetition might unravel their meaning.

"I will explain" Orange Pekoe said, finding her stride in her new role as Commander. "The tournament will feature eight teams in total. As well as us, there will be…" She glanced down at her notes. "...Saunders, Kuromorimine, Ooarai…" That name produced some more murmurs from the seated St. Gloriana girls. "...Chi Ha Tan, BC Freedom and Anzio" Orange Pekoe continued.

She frowned slightly and counted lines on her notepad. "Oh, and Pravda, of course!" she added slightly sheepishly.

"Each team will play every other team once, meaning there will be a total of…" Orange Pekoe again paused and looked down at her notes.

"Twenty eight matches" Assam said from her chair.

"We're taking part in twenty eight matches this spring?!" Rosehip piped up.

"No no…" Orange Pekoe patiently explained. "As I said, each team plays all the other teams once, so we will therefore be taking part in a total of seven matches. Twenty eight is the total number when you count up all the matches that every team will compete in. This is part of the Tournament's appeal for the spectators. It allows for a lot of matches and many of these will be televised, especially in the later stages of the Tournament."

Rosehip vigorously nodded her understanding.

"In order not to be too costly to the schools involved, each match will be limited to eight tanks," Orange Pekoe further explained. No one said anything, but there were some inward sighs of relief. With the team depleted as it was, and allowing for girls missing matches through study or personal commitments, eight tanks was about as much as the team could handle.

Rukuriri spoke up. "Excuse me Miss Pekoe, but could you explain this 'points-based league' system you mentioned?"

"I am coming to that now" Orange Pekoe said. "The matches will be the flag tank battles that we are all used to, but with a difference. Immobilising the enemy flag tank ends the match and earns that winning team three points. A further two points, however, can be scored by either team if they have destroyed more than fifty percent of their opponent's tanks."

There was silence as the girls mentally digested this information, some quicker than others.

"So that means…" Sarah began to say.

"It means…" cut in Assam, who was obviously getting impatient with those who did not possess computer-grade brains. "It means that winning the battle by immobilising the opposing flag tank may not be enough. For example, a team might win by knocking out the enemy flag team, but lose four or more of their own tanks in the process. That would mean the final score would be three points to the winning team, but the losers also score two points. If, on the other hand, a team could immobilise four or more tanks including the flag tank they would get a full five points. So even if that team lost half of their own tanks, the score is five points to two. In a league, the more points you can get over an opponent is better. But bear in mind that a team that lost a few battles may still get the two points for having knocked out fifty percent of the enemy force. They could still very easily be in the running to win the tournament with only a couple of good victories in the last matches. Overall, my analysis of the scoring system suggests that teams should be aggressive, which is obvious really. That is what this new tournament is all about: Fast paced, quick and exciting battles."

She turned and nodded at Orange by way of an apology for taking centre stage.

"As I am sure the new commander was about to point out to you; this Tournament is one that will test your tactical thinking too. There will be challenges both on the battleground and in the planning stages beforehand. The current position of your opponent within the league table will also be something that might affect your planning, as it will very probably alter your opponent's tactics. Are they in a leading position, and therefore likely to be playing it safe; or are they desperate for the points and so may play a more risky game? We will have to wait and see."

Rosehip still looked baffled but continued to smile to give the impression she absorbed all this information in one go. Which was obviously not true whatsoever, but smiles were spread over the faces of some of the others, especially Sarah. She considered herself to be good at the planning and tactical elements of sensha-do and was happy that this tournament would give her a chance to make good use of those skills. Extrapolating what other teams might be planning based on their position within the league, like Assam had talked about, would also be very interesting, although she admitted she didn't have Assam's brain and so might need to take a bit longer to work things out. She was, however, pretty good at maths and number puzzles, so didn't see why she wouldn't be able to master this too. She allowed herself to daydream a little at this point; hopefully her abilities in this area would quickly become obvious to Orange Pekoe and she would shine out as one of the best Vice-Commanders in St. Gloriana's history. Maybe there was even a possibility of her becoming the first ever foreign student to become Commander of St. Gloriana in the not so distant future.

**12th February, Pravda High School, Sensha-do HQ, 2:03 PM,**

Katyusha sat grinning and occasionally cackling to herself in the palatial office which was the residence of the head of the Pravda Sensha-do Team. She was reading the rules and the team information regarding the upcoming Spring Tournament.

"Haha!" she laughed out loud. "Katyusha's glorious victory is certain!"

She decided she needed to inform her trusted Number Two about her plans, and so loudly shouted "Nonna! NONNA!" at the office door.

The same door opened instantly to admit the tall, dark-haired figure of Nonna.

"Nonna, I… wait, how did you come in so quickly?!" Katyusha asked. "Were you standing outside the door?!"

"I just so happened to be passing when I heard you call for me" Nonna explained calmly.

"Hmpf… good!" Katyusha reassured herself. "Anyway, we have great things ahead of us for the Spring Tournament!"

"Shouldn't you think about your exams?" Nonna asked in a motherly tone. "Both Maho and Darjeeling have handed over command of their teams to their successors already. You have your future to think about…"

"Don't patronise me!" Katyusha snapped. "Kay and other commanders have not! The Great Katyusha does not and will not step down until the very end! How will Pravda succeed without me?! The Great Katyusha will win a truly glorious victory to mark her departure!"

"You seem very confident" Nonna commented.

"Oh, I am!" Katyusha said quietly, with the sort of smile a man-eating crocodile might make. "The Great Katyusha has a long reach! The Great Katyusha will have control over this tournament from the very start!" Katyusha started to dribble slightly as she ranted.

"That is truly wonderful Katyusha" Nonna said as she dabbed her commander's mouth with a handkerchief. "How is it that Katyusha has so much power?" She fished for details.

"Uh-uh" Katyusha said, reclining back in her chair. "Details are not important at this stage Nonna. But let's say we have used these means before but now on a larger scale. A pretty little bird sings to Katyusha! And she sings Katyusha's tune!"

"I see," Nonna said. "And does Katyusha's pretty little bird have a name?"

Katyusha looked smug. "That name is known only between the Great Katyusha and her little birds" the short megalomaniac answered. "You and I can refer to her as 'Redwing', and she likes to migrate to many places. I will be very interested in seeing what she will do."

"I see…" Nonna said, standing patiently waiting for any new orders from her overlord. "Am I needed, Katyusha?"

"Leave me. I have work to do," Katyusha said shooing her away towards the door of her office. Nonna immediately bowed and walked away closing the door behind her. A girl with snow coloured hair and sapphire blue eyes waited for her outside. Nonna nodded towards her and Klara began to walk alongside her.

"So what do you know?" Klara asked.

"Red Crossbill, Redcoat, Northern Red Bishop, Red Goshawk and Redwing it seems are ready. Let's just hope you are not a spy Klara..." Nonna stopped and turned to face Klara. "As I will break any Pravda girl's neck if they betray us…!"

* * *

**AN: Me and Sharky are looking forward to bring more of The Fallen Crown, to you. so if you have any feedback please post them we are always looking to improve this story to make it as good as it can be.**

**hakimsohit51 Thanks for the review and we will!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Hard as steel**

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**14th February, The Tea Garden heading north, 12:22 PM**

The three girls in command of St Gloriana's Sensha-do team walked together along a smooth stoned pathed path heading towards the tank garges. Some of the trees were beginning to bloom already, with the light constant breeze of the ships movement, blowing into their faces.

Sarah was never really close to Orange Pekoe. Even before her relationship with Darjeeling. Out of the main three in the of St Gloriana, she was most closest to Assam. With Darjeeling in a close second. She never held an animosity against Orange. But not having really gotten to know her on a personal level which didn't really help. She just had to keep her professional facade on at all times around her. She thought to herself any time she was around Pekoe.

"So ladies as we are on our way to the garage with all our tanks. Is there anything we can do for team building?" Orange Pekoe asked. Looked to Sarah then her other vice Rukuriri.

"It's quite simple really. A fresh start requires a fresh lick of paint. Painting the tanks would help build up some team spirit," Rukuriri said pointing out as a couple of the tanks were starting to look more like rust buckets than Sensha-do tanks.

"I sadly must disagree with Rukuriri. A tank is better than any other vehicle for cross country because of its tracks," Sarah pointed out. "Have you seen the tension of my tracks? And the state of the road wheels? Even your Matilda isn't looking fresh Rukuriri. Orange I suggest just a maintenance day. Just to fix the odd bugs with our tanks. Especially the Cromwell; it needs some attention"

"Well English that's no fun," Rukuriri said rather light heartedly. "And besides," she added "we need to think of the whole team not just the fast tanks."

"I would agree yours is a little more fun," Sarah accepted to her companion. "But it has to be done you know."

"We could always paint your Cromwell pink for target practice or even a shiny gold" Rukuriri teased.

"Gold would be preferable. I would be able to dodge most of your shells anyway Rukuriri." Sarah added as a light jab back.

"Alright girls, thank you," Orange Pekoe said ending the jokey debate Rukuriri and Sarah were having as the garages came into sight. "Painting it is."

"But why? Rukuriri can't even use a paint brush. It's an expert tool that she hasn't been qualified for," Sarah added, her part of James sassayness kicking in.

"Yer yer." Rukuriri said rolling her eyes. Rurukriri then made a small smile. "As Darjeeling would say…Do you know this saying?" She said in a prefect copy of Darjeelings voice. "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

"Thanks Rukeeling, I'll bear that in mind." Sarah added back as she look from Rukuriri back to their destination.

As they got within shouting distance of the garages, faces became clear. All the girls, every crew member was there all in a perfect line wearing their cream coloured overalls, stood waiting to hear what Orange had to say to them.

"Welcome all," Orange Pekoe started off addressing the line. "Today's tasks are to paint your own tanks. Also as a little treat I'm allowing you to be able to paint a small logo like a flower or a sword or similar. Maybe something historical like the desert rats' division insignia. And if you wish you may give your tank a name as well. I would recommend placing them on the rear of the tank or side and not too big to give away your position to the enemy. Everything you need is in the storage lockers; Churchills on the right side of the garage, Matildas on the left. And Crusaders at the back. Ladies have fun and be creative." Thus dismissed, the crews fell out and slid open the huge wooden doors which creaked and moaned as they moved apart from each other. The crews entered the hangar and were reunited with their battered old friends.

Sarah moved over to her crew:Peppermint her small but strong loader. Honeybush the Rosehip personality clone who was her driver. And Jasmine Pearl, her dependable and caring friend who had helped Sarah so much when she arrived at St Gloriana all those months ago.

"So what should we do?" Honeybush asked the group.

"I want to do the 9th Armored division. It's a Panda and it's cute," Jasmine said, showing it on her phone to the gang.

"Boring! I like the red eagle like the 4th Indian Infantry Division!" Peppermint instantly threw in.

"I'll let you guys decide I'm really not fussed to be honest," Sarah said bluntly, moving towards the Cromwell near the back of the garage with her crew following behind her nattering away about what to paint. "Our tracks are more important than how our tank looks - I'm going to have a word with Orange Pekoe."

Sarah stalked over to the diminutive orange-haired girl who was checking things off a list of a clipboard.

"Orange, I need to talk to you about our tracks" Sarah began. Orange Pekoe looked up from what she was doing.

"What about them?" she asked, sounding a little exasperated.

"They need some work and while the others are painting I thought that…"

Orange Pekoe cut her off. "No English, I know what you're going to say and I can't have that. This is a team-building exercise to restore some normality and pride in the team. I can't have your tank and crew being treated as a special case."

"I'm not saying that…" Sarah began, feeling put down.

"We have to work together as a team," Orange Pekoe went on. "I know what you're saying about track maintenance and I do understand; but it's not for tonight. As a commander, when I make a decision, I need my two vice-commanders to back me up together, not bicker and argue. This dual vice-commander idea is new, and I need to make sure it works. I can't have you and Rukuriri doing opposite things. Come on, we're not BC Freedom!" she added with a small smile, trying to make a joke to get Sarah on side.

"I get that, it's just…" Sarah flustered.

"That's my decision - painting please Miss English. Oh, which reminds me; the tins of Number Nine Olive Drab for the Cromwell are Number Three basement, not up here." Orange Pekoe pointed to a plain door that Sarah knew led down to the basements under the hangar, although she had never been down there. With Orange Pekoe giving her final word on the subject there was little more Sarah could do other than obey the instruction to forego the important maintenance and proceed with the painting.

"I also think, after practice today, you should apologise to Rukuriri. I know it was only a jokely argument but I don't want things to escalate," Orange Pekoe told her. "And before you ask; I shall be asking her to apologise to you too," she added.

Sarah sighed and nodded.

"Good!" said Orange Pekoe, sounding more cheerful. "Now… we'll all get on with this together. How about you get a tin of Number Nine Olive Drab for the Cromwell?"

Orange Pekoe left her and Sarah made her way over to the grey metal door. She was still feeling bitter about being overruled. She noticed Rukuriri skulking nearby but chose to ignore her as she must have been trying to copy the Cromwell's new logo which was now decided to be the pegasus logo of the 1st and 6th airborne division. The girls moved off to get the brushes as Sarah went to get the base green paint from downstairs.

"The tanks need to be fixed, we need to practice. Not painting, like we are in baby school," she mumbled under her breath. She opened the door and stepped inside onto a short landing with concrete steps descending into darkness ahead of her. Seeing a light switch to her left, she flicked it but only the furthest light in the basement came on. The stairs remained in darkness. She gave it two more futile flicks before accepting that only one light in the basement was working.

"Great!" she said sarcastically to herself, still in her bad mood from earlier. She began a slow trudge down the dark staircase towards what looked like the paint locker at the far end of the cavernous cellar.

She was only halfway down the steps when she felt her ankle snag on something as she put her right leg forward. The next thing she knew she was falling fast, unable to stop herself. In a twinkling of an eye she had pitched up in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, shocked and confused with a burning agony emanating from her left leg. She was also aware of a voice that was screaming. As the pain started to overwhelm her, she realised that the voice was her own.

* * *

**15th February, Florence Nightingale hospital , 14:00**

The people in white long coats, clipboards in hand. The smell of pure sterilisation. The St Gloriana hospital was like many others around the world. Darjeeling walked alongside a doctor called Dr. Ishikai as they had a small conversation about Sarah's state. They arrived at the light wooden door number with the number 27 in a round number plaque on the front of the door.

"So as I was saying we had to use 'calming drugs' throughout the time she has been here. I know some people have a fear of hospitals. But this, this was something else… related to some sort of past trauma maybe?" Dr. Ishikai inquired.

"Thank you doctor. I'll make sure she is looked after," Darjeeling said, avoiding the question about Sarah's past. She opened the door just before looking back at the doctor.

"Nosocomephobia is the fear of hospitals," she said as she entered the rather dull room and closed the door behind her. It was again like so many hospital rooms around the world; a chair for a visitor or two, the patient in the bed, and a heart monitor making its rhythmic beats.

Darjeeling looked over to what must have first seemed like a sleeping girl. Sarah was lying in a hospital bed with her left leg hanging above the bed in a broad sling. There were various other slings and stirrup type devices attached to her leg and foot, each connected to weighted ropes, which were all employed in keeping her leg held at exactly the right position. The bits of her leg that didn't have medical appliances strapped to them were covered in bandages. She was wearing an unflattering hospital gown and her hair was a mess but she at least looked peaceful.

On moving a little closer to her, Darjeeling could see her face forming into a light smile. Sarah was lightly nodding her head as if she was listening to music, although of course none existed in the room. "Ah it's you... why do you always look soooooo beautiful... he he." Sarah muttered in a rather drunk sounding tone, her little giggle bringing a little life to Darjeeling's.

"You know Sarah your eyes are closed." Darjeeling said sitting next to her bed. "How would you know it was me?" she queried.

"A doctor doesn't wear heeled boots... he he that would be funny to see a doctor in those boots..."

"How are you Sarah? Any pain? Any anything?"

"Darjeeling! You are always perfect. You know. Just like listening to you is like art to the ears..." Sarah said with slow, relaxed breaths, as if it was a day at the beach. "... like your sayings. They really speak to me in such a deep way..." she added. "Like the one about the servant. You know..."

"Do you mean 'I'd rather be a poor master of my own fate than a rich servant of someone else's.' Is that the one?"

"Mmmmmmm yes... yes."

Darjeeling looked at Sarah's face still bobbing up and down eyes closed. "Can you remember what happened? Do you want to know your injuries?"

"I remember falling… flying... I have no injuries just setbacks or something like that," Sarah murmured.

Darjeeling just had a look of the purest 'why am I wasting my time here?' expression all over her face. Getting through to Sarah in this trance was never going to happen. "It's just like talking to Mika," Darjeeling muttered to herself.

Darjeeling looked down at Sarah's arm with the clear tube taped in place, administering this drug to her.

"Sorry Sarah, the doctor said I might need to do this" she said quietly. She switched off the drug supply, wanting to speak to the real Sarah Alexander. She noticed the first difference straight away. Sarah's eyes opened showing pupils as dinner plates which rapidly began to decrease in size. Her eyes appeared to be able to focus more and they moved around the room. The heart rate monitor beeps became more frequent.

"This... this..." Sarah muttered.

Darjeeling grasped her hand. "Yes, you're in a hospital" She could feel Sarah's hand already sweating intensely. "Now listen Sarah you are fine. You are fine and will be fine. You are under my supervision. Nothing and I repeat nothing bad will happen to you," Darjeeling firmly but lovely stated.

"You can't know that..."

"See this?" Darjeeling pointed to the tap by Sarah's arm. "I can put this on again and you can go back to la la land or..." she looked dead into Sarah's eyes. "... you can hear what I have to say and tell you everything that you have wrong with you so the doctors can fix you. So what will it be?"

Sarah wanted to cry but her body just wouldn't, she shivered for a little moment or two. Then answered. "What happened to me?"

Darjeeling explained how Sarah had been rescued from her horrendous fall in the basement and rushed to the St. Gloriana hospital. She omitted the parts about Sarah's terror and distress at being in a hospital building again as she did not want to worry her girlfriend any further.

Sarah was just bamboozled by this information. She had lost all track of time. She didn't know if it was the day or night, or even if it was the same day or the next. Fighting against the fear and pain, she listened to Darjeeling's explanation and then tried to think of something light-hearted and witty to say, but couldn't. "It bloody hurts!" she eventually settled on. Not only was there pain from her leg, but also various other bumps, scrapes and bruises from her plummet down the concrete stairs.

"Well… I'm afraid it will for a bit" Darjeeling said with a weak smile. "But remember, 'there are no gains without pains'. You did quite a number on your leg it appears."

"How bad is it? Honestly? I don't recall anyone telling me anything! Oh, I'm so confused" Sarah complained.

Darjeeling knew all about Sarah's condition. When Sarah had first transferred to St. Gloriana, she had been asked to provide the details of someone, ideally her next of kin, who could have access to her medical records if necessary. With her father and brother on the other side of the planet, it wasn't much good specifying them, so it had been agreed that Darjeeling would stand in for Sarah's next of kin. As the head of the Sensha-do team of which Sarah was a part, it seemed to make sense. Now that they were involved in an altogether more intimate relationship it made even more sense. Sarah was glad that Darjeeling could be told information about her condition that would otherwise have been kept confidential.

Darjeeling cocked her head to one side and gave a half shrug. "Of course I'll be honest" she told her girlfriend. She pointed a slender finger at Sarah's suspended leg. "You broke your ankle; and your shin here…" She indicated a spot quite high up. "…and you shattered your knee too. On top of that you also tore your ACL – your anterior cruciate ligament, to use its proper name. The surgeons have put you back together though!" She smiled at Sarah. Sarah just looked distraught.

"Darjeeling… why am I here?" Sarah asked, nervously looking around her.

Darjeeling sighed, knowing that Sarah had been concussed and sedated while in hospital as well, so she was undoubtedly still so confused.

"As I said, you broke your…"

"No, Darjeeling, why am I in hospital?" Sarah cut her off. "I don't like hospitals… I… I" Sarah started to show signs of panic once again.

Darjeeling was no psychologist, but knowing what Sarah had gone through; seeing her brother die in a hospital room clearly had a profound effect on Sarah and had obviously given her some sort of phobia. She bent over Sarah and hugged her, and, after a furtive glance to see if there was the slightest chance that anyone might be looking, kissed her on the lips. The two of them were not quite confident about making their relationship openly public yet. She then embraced her again, comforting her injured friend.

"Shh… shh… it's alright, I'm here. Nothing can happen to you" Darjeeling soothed. Her touch seemed to restore calm to Sarah's body, although her expression still looked worried.

"When can I get out of here? When?!" she quizzed Darjeeling.

"The doctors tell me they will put your leg in a plaster cast tomorrow, and you should be out of the hospital in about a week."

Sarah was quiet while she digested this information. It didn't sound at all good.

"I can't be here for days!" she protested. Then something else occurred to her. "A p-plaster cast?" she finally stammered. It would be the first time she had worn such a thing.

"Yes, you know, like Rosehip was in until recently" Darjeeling soothingly explained. "Although yours will be longer, over your knee as well, up this gorgeous-looking thigh of yours…" she said flirtingly. Despite her situation, Sarah couldn't help but feel a warming giggle well up from within her.

"Aw, that's going to suck big time! How am I going to train in the Cromwell?" she moaned. "That will be really awkward with a plast…"

"At this moment in time, it's best not to think of Sensha-do" Darjeeling said, waving her hand to indicate to Sarah to forget about her Sensha-do worries. This, however, just caused Sarah to revert to her previous concerns.

"I don't want to stay here for a week Darjeeling. I can't! Please get me out of here!" she begged.

"They will take care of you here. You said it yourself; it will be hard for you to manage with your leg in a plaster cast so the doctors want to keep you here for a bit" Darjeeling patiently explained in a soothing voice.

"I don't…" Sarah beckoned her in closer "… don't want to…" she said in a strained whisper. Sarah's usually confident face began to crack in front of Darjeeling as she finally began to weep, making Darjeeling's heart lurch. Darjeeling had only ever seen this happen once before, when Sarah had been looking at her voicemails. It was different in a way as she didn't look scared for her own well being from being in a hospital. But more of guilt. Darjeeling just watched, knowing she couldn't do anything to really help. She just stroked Sarah's hair.

"I did have… one idea..." Darjeeling interjected slowly. "I wondered… well... no, it's silly… but, what about if you moved in with me?" she said eventually.

The words hit her slowly through her barrier of emotions. As they sunk in Sarah took a deep breath. "Move in with you?!" Sarah asked, feeling a little confused.

"Yes!" Darjeeling said. "As the head of the Sensha-do team, for some reason I have a suite of rooms, bigger than the usual student accommodation. 'Rank has its privileges' it seems. Oh, I know I have handed over to Orange Pekoe; but I've kept the rooms until I graduate. I couldn't possibly move out while I have all this studying to do!" Darjeeling explained in her roundabout style.

"But…" Sarah mumbled.

"That way, I can be on hand whenever you need anything. I'm sure I can be an excellent nurse! After all, 'when love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece'." Now that Sarah was interested in the idea, Darjeeling seemed to be very much looking forward to the idea of being Sarah's nursemaid.

"Well, I…" Sarah tried to say. When she thought about it, however, it would be very hard for her to look after herself if she was living alone in her student room.

"I have a big living room, a bedroom with a proper en suite bathroom, and a reasonably large kitchen" Darjeeling explained to Sarah. "You will have to sleep in my bed though, as it's the only one."

"If I am sleeping in your bed, where are you going to sleep?" she asked innocently.

Darjeeling simply looked at her and grinned. "Just rest now, okay?" Darjeeling's hand fell onto the tap onto Sarah's arm, twisting it to turn the flow of drugs back on.

* * *

**20th February - Darjeelings apartment **

"Are you sure you're alright?" The overly motherly tone of Darjeeling could be heard heading down an empty corridor with a door right at the end.

"Yes I'm fine."

"Just say if you need help."

"I don't need help; I'm doing fine."

"Now careful with the door – here, let me…"

"Darjy! Will you stop fussing like some sort of mother hen?! I'm fine!"

Sarah was hopping along on a pair of crutches provided by the hospital towards Darjeeling's apartments, accompanied by the lady of the apartment herself. Darjeeling was being particularly over-protective and, while Sarah could tell that she meant well, she was finding it a bit embarrassing. However, they had made it thus far without incident and now Darjeeling was unlocking the door and ushering, fussing and generally getting in the way as Sarah hopped inside.

"You settle yourself on the bed my little teacup!" Darjeeling said. Sarah was surprised to learn that she now had her own term of endearment. "I have a revision lecture in fifteen minutes, so I will have to run along. You take it easy and I will be back later; then I'll cook us some dinner, how about that?"

With a quick peck on both of Sarah's cheeks, Darjeeling was gone, leaving Sarah alone in the apartment. It occurred to her that she'd never been in Darjeeling's rooms before. She was also slightly concerned about what to expect from Darjeeling's promise of cooking dinner; both Assam and Orange Pekoe had warned Sarah not to let Darjeeling into the kitchen under any circumstances.

Sarah was happy to take Darjeeling's advice and flop down on the bad to rest her throbbing leg, but Darjeeling hadn't actually shown Sarah where the bed was. Nonetheless, it wasn't hard to work it out; Sarah opened the first door on her left and found it to be the bedroom. The other door she could see was presumably the small kitchen, and at the end of the short corridor was the open living and dining area, with what looked like large windows letting in plenty of light. Sarah was keen to explore and the living area looked very inviting from what she could see of it, but the pain in her leg told her this wasn't the time. Also, using crutches was much harder work than it first looked, she had discovered.

She hopped into the bedroom and immediately saw a strange sight. At first she was a bit surprised, but then burst out laughing. On Darjeeling's bed was a large flat pillow, laid along the length of the bed, resting up against the wall. It was white, with an almost life sized image of Darjeeling herself printed on it. The printed Darjeeling was wearing her red tank uniform, although without the boots, and looking slightly seductively back at the onlooker.

"What the Hell?!" Sarah asked herself. She was aware that merchandise relating to the famous Sensha-do teams was produced, some even featuring the commanders personally, but she had no idea that Darjeeling would have this fan object in her own bedroom. She found it vaguely amusing. Looking around, she also spotted about a dozen collectable Darjeeling figurines, all identical.

A series of plastic figurines was produced by the Sensha-do Federation marketing department for every tournament, and quite a few fans and players alike had collections. Sarah was no exception, although she wasn't a serious collector. She owned one of Earl Grey, Miho, Maho, and one of Mika, the commander of Jatkasota High School, which she was particularly pleased with as it was rare. Orange Pekoe had a much more extensive collection, including older commanders of past tournaments. She even had one of Shiho Nishizumi. Everyone in St. Gloriana, however, had a Darjeeling figurine. Sarah couldn't remember where she had got hers from; there were simply millions of the things about the place it seemed. Sarah now suspected that Darjeeling herself might be the source of this infestation of toys.

Still chuckling at this idea, Sarah eased herself down onto the bed and rearranged some of the pillows (not the full length Darjeeling one!) so they propped up her injured leg. Realising that she was going to have a lot of time on her hands for quite a while, she settled back, pulled out her phone, and began to compose an e-mail to her dad to final tell him in person that she was fine and Darjeeling would be looking after her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 - As soft as clay**

* * *

**23rd February, Darjeeling's Bedroom, 6:15 PM**

Sarah was staring rather forlornly at the toes of her left foot, which seemed to be an awfully long way away from her. They were poking out of the end of a long, smooth, white plaster cast which hugged the contours of her slender leg. It started just behind the base of her toes and extended all the way up her leg to finish a few inches from her crotch. Her leg still throbbed and ached but keeping it propped up pillows, as she had it now, alleviated some of the pain.

As expected Darjeeling was acting like the perfect lady and had surrendered the entire bed to Sarah, despite Sarah's protests and feelings of guilt for turfing Darjeeling out of her own room. Darjeeling, however, was adamant that she would sleep on the sofa while Sarah had full use of the bed to aid her recovery. Since Sarah's release from hospital, every evening they would half sit, half lie together on the bed with an arm around each other and read, watch DVDs on Darjeeling's laptop or just chat. When it came to lights out time, however, Darjeeling would always give Sarah a loving kiss before retiring to the living room to spend the night on the sofa (which, fortunately, was a large and luxurious one).

Sarah had felt for some while that she was ready to take their relationship to the next level. She'd never had a sexual partner before but was starting to fall more and more in love with Darjeeling. Sarah was a bit of a romantic idealist and she had been hoping that the romantic date she had planned for Valentine's Day might have led to some more intimate night time activity between her and Darjeeling. Sadly, her fall down the stairs in the basement had completely scuppered that idea.

Despite her accident and injury, however, it was hard not to feel some sort of yearning, especially when Darjeeling gave her a sponge bath unexpectedly one morning. Nor did it help when Darjeeling sat or lay on the bed next to her wearing her night attire, which consisted of a semi-opaque négligé and which left very little to the imagination!

Sarah heard the door to the apartment open and then Darjeeling's voice. "Hellooo! How is my little teacup doing?" This appeared to be Darjeeling's favourite term of endearment for Sarah. "I've been shopping and have got food!" Darjeeling called out.

'Bollocks!' Sarah said to herself. Since moving in with Darjeeling she had learned a few things about her lover that she hadn't fully appreciated. Both Assam and Orange Pekoe had told her that Darjeeling's cooking was bad, but Sarah had discovered that they had lied. It wasn't bad; it was dreadful! If Darjeeling was planning to cook tonight it was a calamity that had to be avoided.

Still wearing just a nighty which she had borrowed from Darjeeling, Sarah shuffled to the edge of the bed and bit her lip against the onrush of pain as she lowered her plastered leg to the floor. She then gathered up her crutches and swung herself on them out of the bedroom and into the rest of the apartment.

"Are you cooking?" Sarah asked as she saw Darjeeling slowly move herself to the open kitchen, still in her school uniform, but with the first couple buttons of her white shirt undone, her cardigan slung over the sofa.

"Yes, I thought I'd make us something small," she replied as she lifted her phone and began to read out what was on the cooking menu. "Sunday is the day that the British look forward to because that is the day we eat our big Sunday dinner. Depending on your family tradition the meal is usually served around lunchtime, so it is technically lunch, but for the sake of the title I called it roast beef dinner," she read. "I know it's not a Sunday but I thought to get some practice in."

"I... um... yeah great… But how about once I can walk a little better we do it together? As it would be nice to do it together as a pair," Sarah tried to say as smoothly as possible. "How about today we have your favourite meal… Fish and chips, if I'm right? We can get it ordered and eat it up here together. With one of your films on?"

"Oh, as it's you, why not." Darjeeling answered. She lifted her phone up and tapped away. Sarah breathed a quick sigh of relief.

Once the food was brought up to them in its classic white paper, Darjeeling drowned her portion in malt vinegar. They both sat down on the sofa and the DVD began to play one of the period dramas that were Darjeeling's favourite. Sarah had her broken leg resting on the coffee table, propped up on a pillow, while the other was tucked up underneath her and ate her chips with her hands. It wasn't the best fish and chips as the cooking oil could have been different and the fish was a far cry from being either cod or haddock. As she looked down at the chips and half eaten crispy fish, however, it did remind her of home back in Boston High and the great times she had, but was a long time ago now. Which in turn reminded her of a question she'd always been wanting to know.

"Darjeeling…" she said hesitantly.

"Yes English?" Darjeeling replied.

Sarah paused, still unsure if she wanted to ask her question. "Did you and Orange Pekoe… I mean… were you ever…?"

Darjeeling laughed. "Do you mean 'was she ever my girlfriend?'?" Darjeeling giggled again. "I was attracted to her, I admit, but no, she never was. She resisted all my attempts, which probably made me try even harder. Have you heard this phrase: 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again'? But it was always to no avail! We're very close friends, but honestly I don't think Orange Pekoe is into women in that way. Why do you ask; not jealous are you?!"

Sarah took a deep breath. "No… but I thought she might be jealous of me. This is going to sound crazy but… I'm sure someone sabotaged those basement stairs so I fell. And it thought, just maybe, it could have been Orange Pekoe."

Darjeeling stopped watching the DVD and turned to face Sarah. "Wow. This is interesting! Romance, intrigue, jilted lovers…" She laughed again. "But seriously English, I don't think anyone at St. Gloriana would do a thing like that; and especially not Orange Pekoe. She's one of the nicest girls you could ever meet."

Sarah shrugged, not really having anything to say in reply to Darjeeling. They watched the remainder of the DVD with Sarah only half paying attention, but with Darjeeling enraptured by the glamorous costumes on show. Eventually the drama ended and Sarah nuzzled up to her girlfriend.

"Would you like it if I dressed like that?" she asked, trying to sound a bit seductive as she spoke.

"I like your vintage style just the way it is!" Darjeeling replied with a smile.

"Carry me to the bedroom?" Sarah asked, still nuzzling Darjeeling's neck.

Darjeeling laughed and made a pretence of trying to lift Sarah. "I'm not a loader," she finally joked. "You'll have to hop."

Helped by Darjeeling, Sarah struggled upright and then bounced along next to Darjeeling as she shepherded her to the bedroom. Once through the door, Sarah made sure to keep her arm around Darjeeling's neck and shoulders as she flopped down onto the bed, thereby pulling Darjeeling down with her.

"Whoa, what's got into you my little teacup?" Darjeeling asked with a grin.

Sarah didn't reply but kissed Darjeeling on the mouth, then kissed her again until Darjeeling's mouth opened and their tongues met.

"I want you Darjeeling," Sarah whispered into her girlfriend's ear. She was rewarded with Darjeeling's hands embracing her and exploring the curves of her body. She in turn started to unbutton Darjeeling's blouse while they continued to kiss. She tried to adjust her position so they could move towards the middle of the bed, tingling all over with carnal desires washing over her and silently cursing her heavy left leg, held awkwardly rigid by the long plaster cast. Their kisses broke for long enough for Darjeeling to shed her now open blouse and for Sarah to divest herself of the nightie she had been wearing. The last thing Sarah had a clear picture of before Darjeeling flicked out the light was her girlfriend reaching behind her own back to unclip her bra.

* * *

**2nd March, Darjeeling's apartment room, 15:00**

Over the past week, Sarah and Darjeeling had accepted that their relationship had moved to a new level. They were now sharing the same bed every night and very familiar with each other's bodies. They were having quite regular sex, which Sarah was slowly getting used to. What should have been her special first time with her lover had turned out to be a sweaty and painful experience that had kept her awake for the rest of the night, biting her lip against the pain emanating from her smashed knee, and resulting in her needing to keep her injured leg up on pillows for most of the following day.

Nonetheless, a combination of exploring new techniques and knowing her limitations meant that the process was becoming much more enjoyable. She was intrigued to find that Darjeeling was an insatiable lover when it came to their fun in the bedroom; not that Sarah minded too much. She was only too happy to be able to please her girlfriend and grateful for the attention she got in return.

Sarah was still excused from school because of her broken leg but she was getting some work sent to her. Currently, it was in a pile, untouched, on the bedside cabinet, but she wasn't in the mood for schoolwork yet. Besides, she had good marks in History, her English Literature (being her native language) was excellent, she was doing well in Japanese classes, and even her Maths was good. She wasn't unduly worried about her grades and so missing a week or so of classes wasn't going to be a big issue for her.

Darjeeling was at school and so Sarah was reclining on the bed. She was halfway through a dreadful romantic novel that Darjeeling had lent her when there was a buzz on the door entry system. Luckily, the system could be linked up to Sarah's phone, so she didn't have to struggle off the bed to see who it was or open it.

Pressing the 'answer' button on her glowing phone screen, she asked: "Who is it?"

"It's me Miss English!" came the manic reply, shouted at the comms box on the other side of the main door. Rosehip, of course.

"I'll let you in!" Sarah said, pressing the button which deactivated the door lock. A buzzing sound followed, then a door opening and banging shut, and finally running footsteps could be heard approaching. Very soon, Rosehip burst into the room.

"It's me, Miss English, I've come to visit you and to see how you are!" the hyper girl rattled off.

Sarah smiled as she had been getting bored and lonely stuck in the bedroom all by herself. More importantly, she wanted news from Rosehip. That very morning, St. Gloriana had been facing Chi-Ha-Tan Academy in the first match of the Spring Tournament. Sarah had seen the result online - a five-nil St. Gloriana victory - but hadn't been able to find any televised coverage of the match. She was therefore anxious to find out from Rosehip what had happened and asked her to tell her everything.

"Oh! it was great Miss English! Lady Orange Pekoe and Miss Rukuriri came up with a brilliant strategy!" Rosehip yelled.

Sarah had noticed that Rosehip often added titles to people's names; frequently calling her 'Miss English', for example. Darjeeling had always been 'Lady Darjeeling' to Rosehip, and Sarah supposed that since Orange Pekoe was now the commander of St. Gloriana's Sensha-do team this qualified her for the uplift to 'Lady' too in Rosehip's unique mind.

"How did it unfold? How did the girls in the Cromwell perform without me?" Sarah asked, interested to hear about her crewmates.

Rosehip dropped a bit of a bombshell. "They did fine Miss English but the Cromwell wasn't used. Lady Orange Pekoe and Miss Rukuriri chose a line up of the Churchill, six Matildas and my Crusader. Miss Honeybush, Miss Jasmine Pearl and Miss Peppermint crewed one of the Matildas with a new commander from the B Team. She's only a first year but she's really good and keen..."

"Oh, fine" Sarah said, wondering what her crew would have thought of this new commander and of not being in their Cromwell.

* * *

**5th March, The Tea Garden, main Sensha-do room, 10:00**

Sarah was feeling quite self conscious as she swung herself along on her crutches, heading to the main Sensha-do team building. She was dressed in her full tank uniform, without her left boot of course, as she was going to the strategy review meeting of the previous tournament match. It was a requirement that team members attended in uniform; although no one knew why. It was just something that St. Gloriana did.

Sarah had left Darjeeling's apartment ten minutes earlier than she needed to, as she was a lot slower now and she didn't want to be late. Nonetheless when she arrived she found that Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri were already sat down at the long table where the meetings were held. Orange Pekoe glanced at her watch as Sarah entered.

"Sorry!" Sarah said, even though she was sure she wasn't actually late. She pulled out a chair from the table and clumsily lowered herself into it. Her awkward broken leg jutted out in front of her when she sat, so she adjusted her position so she could rest her plastered foot on the seat of the vacant chair next to her.

She wasn't the last to arrive, however. Soon, manic footsteps could be heard approaching and the door crashed open to admit Rosehip, who was wearing a white t-shirt with her red tank jacket in one hand. Rosehip didn't take a seat immediately but did a lap of the table, presumably just for the sake of it.

"Sit down please Rosehip" Orange Pekoe said with a noticeable sigh, before beginning the meeting.

"Firstly, I think we can all agree that Green Gunpowder should join the A Team" Orange Pekoe said.

"Who's Green Gunpowder?" Sarah asked, confused.

"Oh, I'm sorry English, I forgot you might not know. Green Gunpowder is the first year student from the B Team that took part in the match against Chi Ha Tan. She showed a lot of promise and we are going to bring her onto the A Team. She can command the Cromwell if we want to use it against Ooarai, which I think we probably will..." Orange Pekoe said, moving on to the main business of the meeting.

"My Cromwell?" Sarah asked, a bit shocked.

"It's not _your _Cromwell; it's St. Gloriana's Cromwell," Rukuriri shot at Sarah.

"I mean... the one I command," Sarah replied, a bit knocked back.

"You're not going to be able to command anything for quite a while though, are you?" Rukuriri continued, stating the obvious.

"Ladies, please!" Orange Pekoe cut across the bickering. "Green Gunpowder will join the A Team and command whatever tank we deem necessary for our strategy," she ruled. "Now, since we're all agreed, I will ask Miss Green Gunpowder to step in and join us, since she's waiting outside. That will give you the chance to finally meet her, Miss English Breakfast."

"I would be honoured to," Sarah said, trying to keep an open mind.

Orange Pekoe gestured and nodded to one of the junior team members who was currently standing silently in the corner of the meeting room. The girl crossed over to the big double doors and opened one of them, poking her head around it and saying something inaudible to the person waiting outside. She then moved aside to admit this newcomer.

The girl who walked in was short and slight, with refined facial features and high cheekbones. The most notable thing about her was the shock of lurid green wavy hair which cascaded down her back and shoulders. She looked very young, even for a first year. She wore a new-looking red Sensha-do jacket, skirt and boots, but uniquely sported a black Sam Browne belt with shoulder strap over her jacket. She was possibly a little awed about being called into the presence of the A team's tank commanders, but carried herself well nonetheless.

"Miss Green Gunpowder; welcome," Orange Pekoe said formally, before gesturing to the various empty seats around the table and inviting Green Gunpowder to take a seat.

The young girl stalked straight up to the vacant seat next to Sarah, and before Sarah could say anything, Green Gunpowder had yanked it back so that she could take her seat. Sarah's heavy plastered leg, which had been resting on that chair, crashed to the floor as soon as it was deprived of its support and Sarah hollered at the top of her voice as a jolt of pain went up her leg and an especially sharp lance of agony flashed through her left knee.

Everyone stared at her for this inelegant conduct, but Sarah couldn't help the natural reaction to a shock like that.

"Oh. Sorry," Green Gunpowder said flatly as she sat down in the chair.

"Yeah!? Why don't you just… be more careful!?" Sarah grumbled, trying to rub her throbbing knee through her plaster cast, which was, of course, impossible.

Green Gunpowder's eyes traced Sarah from the top of her head down to her exposed toes at the end of her plaster cast and then back up to her eyes, where they met and held Sarah's glare.

"You must be Miss English Breakfast," she said, making an obvious deduction. "I was told one of the tank commanders was sidelined at the moment as she'd been clumsy enough to break her leg, somehow."

"Well, falling down a flight of concrete stairs can do that to one's leg, as you can well imagine!" Sarah huffed.

"Miss English? If we could leave your personal circumstances for the moment and get back to the strategy meeting?" Orange Pekoe's voice cut across Sarah's grousing.

"Sorry, Miss Pekoe," Sarah apologised.

Orange Pekoe waited until all faces focused on her before she began to speak. "Today we must plan for one of our most important days. In a couple days' time we face one of the most formidable teams in the whole of the JSF; Ooarai Girls' Academy."

**The Spring League Tournament: Round 1 results**

Kuromorimine Girls' Academy 3 -v- 2 Saunders University High School

Anzio Girls High School 2 -v- 3 BC Freedom High School

St. Gloriana Girls College 5 -v- 0 Chi-Ha-Tan Academy

Pravda Girls' High School 2-v-5 Ooarai Girls Academy

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 1**

1st - St. Gloriana Girls' College - 5

2nd - Ooarai Girls' Academy - 5

Joint 3rd - BC Freedom High School - 3

Joint 3rd - Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 3

Joint 4th - Anzio Girls' High School - 2

Joint 4th - Saunders University High School - 2

5th - Pravda Girls' High School - 2

6th - Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 0

* * *

**A/N: Review time - ****xanmelton, great idea me and Sharky could also try and add that in somewhere. **

**Also, Sharky is a very talented artist and his making some pictures of the girls. So if you want to see the new girls look like in the flesh. Check out his account and Reddit. (username Sharky) **

**Again hope you enjoyed the Chapter we will be back. See you later! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - Minds That Were Long Passed Away**

* * *

**8th March, St. Gloriana Training ground, Battlefield Three, 5:44 PM**

The heavy whack of metal on metal followed by hands pushing the girl with the strawberry coloured hair out of the battleship grey tank. Rosehip had a rather cocky smile lining her face as she got her balance as she stood firmly atop the turret. He hand made her way into the inside pocket of her red jacket. A small flare gun came out; but one with odd small LED lights flashing on the base of the handle.

"This better work Miss English, otherwise we are toast. And I'm really not in the mood... as I've had a big breakfast already," she said as she raised the gun skywards. She looked around at the Chindits, all waiting for the signal.

* * *

**Earlier that day - 8th March, Darjeeling's Apartment, 9:21 AM**

Up early and sitting on the sofa, Sarah was on her laptop. Her fingers clicking away on the keys as she prepared her presentation for what was, in her eyes, one of her most important tactical meetings. She looked at her notes she made on the long flight like an age away now.

"Do you have everything, my little teacup?" a voice intruded on her work, taking her completely by surprise.

"Well I could really use one of your inspirational quotes," she said. She closed her laptop and turned to face Darjeeling on the edge of the sofa, who was rather closer than anticipated, only a meter away or so. She walked over and sat on the empty space on the sofa and stroked Sarah's hair.

"Do I have to? You have everything down to T, trust me it will be fine," she replied. She kissed the top of Sarah's forehead. "Okay, let's get your crutches otherwise you're going to be late, and as the saying goes..." she closed her eyes, raising her index finger into the air.

"If you're on time, you're late. I know, I know," Sarah answered as she quickly closed her laptop, placing it onto the coffee table and struggled until she was able to stand balancing on her healthy leg.

* * *

**8th March, St. Gloriana Sensha-do HQ, 10:01 AM**

Everyone was in the meeting room. All commanders of all eight tanks plus a couple spare, with Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri sitting at the head of the table, tea cups in hand.

"So Miss English Breakfast. May we hear your plan?" Orange Pekoe said, taking a long sip of her tea.

"Yes, of course," Sarah quickly said as she scrambled to connect her laptop to the projector that had already raised from the middle of the table. Once set up, the white screen came down from the ceiling behind Orange Pekoe.

"Okay... so let's begin." She pressed the spacebar to begin the slideshow and the logos of both St Gloriana and Ooarai appeared on the projected screen.

"Ooarai has shown that they are one of the most capable teams in the whole of this competition. Beating Pravda comfortably, with their unconventional guerilla warfare," Sarah said as she showed a small clip of the Pravda battle with the Panzer IV ambushing the Pravda flag tank. "Even with Miho having a rather inexperienced crew, she can still achieve the utmost success. But thanks to Miss Rukuriri's intelligence we have found out that their crews' training is still not of a high enough standard. This is their weakness..."

The girls around her nodded in agreement.

"... It helps as well, that I think I know what their plan might be."

There was a little discussion now around the table.

"Miss English, my intelligence has not been able to find out any real concrete evidence of what Ooarai's movements will be," Rukurir added.

Sarah pressed the spacebar changing the slide to the map of the upcoming match, showing fields, woodlands and a small hamlet to the south.

"Ooarai will fight in urban environments. This is where they feel most comfortable. We won't make it so."

"You are basing this on many assumptions Miss English Breakfast," Orange Pekoe said as she watched Sarah's reactions intently. "Don't give me the full plan, I just want to know what you want to do."

"Deception, Miss Orange Pekoe. That is my plan," Sarah answered, looking over to Orange.

"Rukuriri, your plan please," Orange Pekoe said without any change in her expression.

"But I'm not done…" Sarah protested.

"That is noted. Thank you Miss English. Rukuriri please." Orange said gesturing to the projector. Sarah unplugged her laptop, causing the screen to turn blue. She put her laptop in her bag and moved a chair which was against the wall to the middle of the table out of anger and refused to sit at the head of the table next to Orange Pekoe.

Rukuriri leaned over the table, turning off the projector. It sank back into the oak table and was automatically covered by the wooden table top.

"So my plan for Oorai is simple and effective. We will strike them hard," she expounded while slamming her fist into the palm of her hand. "We use our overwhelming training of firing on the move actually and bring them down. Our heavy tanks can take the hits and the Chindits can flank finishing the job with all five points."

Sarah just looked at the table shaking her head. "You seem to be objecting to my plan, Miss English. Please speak your mind," Rukuriri said as she stood with her arms crossed.

"This won't work. This is Ooarai; we fought with them in that week long battle, and against the university team. Did you learn nothing from thes?" Sarah said rather plainly and simply, giving Rukuriri a small glance, to see her reaction.

"Miss English, moderate your tone please," Orange Pekoe said from the head of the table, with Rukuriri walking back and sitting next to her commander.

"Miss Orange Pekoe, please, I want to win this battle more than any other! I'm willing to put my vice-ship on this plan. If it fails and we lose I'll resign as soon as our white flag waves over our flag tank," Sarah said passionately. Everyone was a little shocked by this. Orange stood from her chair looked down the table to Sarah.

"Okay then, prove it to me. Show me your plan in practice. Four heavy tanks commanded by me, versus the Chindits. I'll then make my decision."

"Yes Miss Orange Pekoe. It will be done. I recommend Battlefield Three as it closely matches the map of the battle with Ooarai. Give me till five PM., Sarah added. Orange Pekoe nodded and then stood from her chair followed by the other commanders.

"Then five PM it will be." Orange Pekoe replied. Without saying anything else she left the tea room followed closely by Rukuriri, then the other commanders. The four Chindit commanders stayed around the table, looking towards Sarah waiting for their brief. The door closed and Sarah took out a note from her laptop pouch.

"Rosehip, as fast as you can take this to the R&D department. Tell them this is what Miss English Breakfast was talking about." Rosehip ran over to Sarah so fast she was just a blur. Sarah passed over the folded piece of paper to Rosehip.

"I will get there as fast as possible!" she yelled sprinting with the note in her hand, smashing the door wide open.

"You girls can sit. So here is the plan..."

* * *

**8th March, St. Gloriana Training ground, Battlefield Three, 4:56 PM**

Three sky grey Crusader tanks and an olive drab Cromwell lined up neatly in front of the entrance to Battlefield Three with its chain link fence, which was no real match against the force of any tanks in St Gloriana's arsenal as even the Techarch could demolish the structure rather easily.

Rosehip leaned on the side of her Crusader with her foot on one of the large wheels, trying her best to see how this elaborate plan could fool Orange Pekoe and her team let alone Ooarai the 63th Sensha-dou champions.

Sarah kept checking her watch constantly, and finally looked over to Rosehip. She swung her way over to her on her crutches. "What's the matter Rosehip?" she asked, putting her hand on Rosehip's shoulder.

"Well, it's just the stuff you ordered still isn't here,'' the speester replied, said looking down the path grooved into the grass by the tanks over the years.

"They will be here soon," Sarah assured her, but again she looked down to her watch.

"Well, Miss English I have never doubted your ability for planning and strategy. But this is Ooarai, they can't just be beaten with just..." her speech was cut short by the light tinney tumble of a very light tracked vehicle. Which was exactly what it was as a Universal Carrier rolled into view, the back covered in a canvas screen.

"Peppermint! Honeybush! What time do you call this?!" Sarah shouted out jokingly.

"Well the R&D lot said they had to keep checking it for 'Safety reasons' and I quote 'We can't just give weapons to young girls'. Even though we drive tanks!" Peppermint said jumping out from over the side and walking over to Sarah, giving her a light hug. "But it's good to see you back, properly."

"Thanks Pepper," she answered. Peppermint took a small step back and making her way over to the Cromwell.

"So, shall we show you the toys?" Honeybush said, who was now by the side to the carrier and removing some of the latches holding the canvas covers.

"Well of course," Sarah said, as other girls from all the tanks crews made their way to the carrier to peer inside.

The canvas was removed, and inside was seven rather odd looking contraptions. They looked like mini mortar guns with a square base and the tube facing 90 degrees into the air.

"Could you lift one out please?" Sarah asked one of the girls gawking at the scene. Which she did; lucky she seemed to be a loader, but even she struggled to lift one out.

"Beautiful ain't they," Sarah smiled touching the black tube. "Okay, attach them to the rear of the tanks. Use the rope from the carrier."

They began to attach them to the back of the tanks. "But how does this thing disattach from the tanks" Rosehip quizzed Sarah.

"Well, you're going to have to figure that out yourselves. Whilst staying in the tank while traveling at speed. As I can't think of any way. But anyhow for this training session just cut them off with a knife."

"Oh, great!" Rosehip said with a raised eyebrow.

After about 15 minutes all the tanks were set up with three flares 'boxes', as they were now being called by the crews. Sarah had, however, insisted that Rosehips Crusader didn't need one. As the crews started to climb up onto the tanks, Sarah spoke.

"Oh Rosehip before you go," Sarah picked up a small sized wooden box with a brass latch on the side from inside the carrier. She then realised she couldn't carry it while using both her crutches. Cursing her bad luck, she leaned one crutch against the carrier and hopped as best she could over to Rosehip, who was stood with one foot on top of the drive sprocket. Sarah passed the box over, which Rosehip opened and peered inside. It contained a flare gun but it had some added gadgets onto it, with LED lights on the handle.

"What has the R&D department done to this thing?"

"This now is the remote control for all of the boxes. Once you fire this gun they all go off sequentially. So whatever you do, don't fire it until you're in place. Make sure the safety stays on," Sarah explained. Rosehip nodded slowly. "Rosehip do you understand?" Sarah asked as she knew the words would have gone through one ear and out the other.

"Yes! Miss English. Once this goes off the others will, I'll make sure to fire it once we are ready," she spouted.

"Great. And Rosehip… Desu wa!" Sarah added with a smile. Rosehip smiled and speedly climbed up onto the Crusader and into the turret.

"All tanks, let's go!" Rosehip yelled. With the time hitting five PM, Operation Bodyguard II had begun. The Chindits moved in a pack dropping off their boxes whenever the time was right, as to stop, cut the box off and drive off took precious time away that they didn't have. Rosehip looked around as they dropped off their last box. She could see her ambush spot; a light ridge near a roadway no more than half a mile away.

"Quick, hurry up Cranberry. I can hear their tanks coming! They must be on the road!" Rosehip yelled to Cranberry who was climbing back up into her Crusader.

The pack began to move again at full speed, regardless of the consequences, making for their spot. Now it was time to wait for the Chindits' counterparts to make their move.

Sarah watched from the main battlefield control tower which looked like a smaller version of an airport control tower, being a very slim steel frame with a large glass box on top. It had a grand view over the whole battlefield. It was true she would have an even better view from one of the forward observation towers, but sadly they were not equipped with a lift, which was of significant importance to her in her current state. Sarah already felt a lot weaker, in comparison to a couple of weeks back before the accident.

Nonetheless, once she'd struggled out of the lift at the observation deck, where Rukuriri was also watching, she could look over to Battlefield Three. It was not too far away but it was hard to make out fine details such as the tank types. Fortunately, spread out in front of her was a screen about saying 'BATTLEFIELD 3' with four red dots moving together. Each dot had a small line next to it with the tank class and commander name, with the lead red dot having. 'RH-Med-CrdIII' and at the speed the tanks were moving she knew that they were the Chindits.

Her eyes moved to the other part of the screen, a slow moving tightly pact formation of blue dots heading towards the town target.

"You know Miss Orange Pekoe isn't being cruel to you. Miss English Breakfast," a voice came from behind Sarah. Sarah turned to face the voice. "Rukuriri, what I did; I really didn't mean to sound so ..."

"Arrogant? I know, it's fine. Miss Pekoe did say to me once we left the meeting room. Deception isn't the St Gloriana way of Sensha-do," Rukuriri said.

"But I want to win. Doesn't she want us to win?" Sarah asked Rukuriri, looking back to the screen, as the Chindits stopped, most likely to drop off a box.

"I do too, Miss English, and this is why I want you to win this match," the other vice-commander replied.

Sarah looked at Rukuriri a little perplexed.

"I told Orange Pekoe not to pick me as I wanted to see how this would play out. I want St Gloriana not to be a place of elegance. But a place of mighty victorys, like the glory days. When we were feared," Rukuriri said to her.

"Rukuriri, I do too. Which is why I am willing to put myself on the line for that ideal," Sarah confirmed.

"And I would too. But you have beaten me to that." Rukuriri gave a grateful smile towards Sarah. "So how's the leg? How long did the doctor say?" Rukuriri asked, looking down at Sarah's long plaster cast with her bare toes poking out the end.

Sarah looked down at her leg and back up to Rukuriri's innocent face. She didn't like her toes always being on show and had even gone so far as to try to cover them with a stretched baggy sock, but that had been until Darjeeling had interfered and told her it was 'inelegant'.

"Oh, the doctors say about seven or eight weeks maybe earlier if I don't strain it too much hopefully. You know how much I miss being in the team. And being with my crew. Also now missing out fighting against Ooarai." Sarah just closed her eyes a little longer than usual, imagining seeing her standing triumphantly on top of the Cromwell, with the Panzer IV flag tank knocked out ahead of her.

"This was one of my biggest goals, when I was coming back after the funeral. This was the battle where I was going to prove myself," she said. Sarah then shrugged. "But it seems I will have to wait. As Darjeeling would say 'Rome wasn't built in a day'."

"Very true Miss English. Very true. But at this moment in time the most important thing is this battle," Rukuriri said as her hand pointed to the screen. The red dots moved again, heading across Orange Pekoe's hopefully intended route.

"Yes of course," Sarah said a little startled, wishing to have a couple more seconds back in her day dream. "You have this Rosehip. Just believe in your speed and you'll be okay," she murmured.

* * *

**8th March, St. Gloriana Training ground, Battlefield Three, 5:43 PM**

"Tanks, four Churchills moving on the road ahead," Vanilla called on the radio.

Rosehip leant down to pick up the flare gun from its wooden box as the turret hatch closed, she pushed down the safety.

'_I won't let you down Miss English,' _she said to herself.

The heavy whack of metal on metal followed by hands pushing the girl with the strawberry coloured hair out of the battleship grey tank. Rosehip had a rather cocky smile lining her face as she got her balance as she stood firmly atop the turret. He hand made her way into the inside pocket of her red jacket. A small flare gun came out; but one with odd small LED lights flashing on the base of the handle.

"This better work Miss English, otherwise we are toast. And I'm really not in the mood... as I've had a big breakfast already," she said as she raised the gun skywards. She looked around at the Chindits, all waiting for the signal. She fired the gun and up went a bright blue flare.

"All tanks eyes up, guns on the direction of the flare."

"Miss Pekoe there's another one!" another commander yelled. "To our front"

"What?" Orange Pekoe said, moving her head to see the new shooting flare. "Tanks Four and Two focus on..."

"Another flare to our left!"

"All tanks stop!" Orange Pekoe commanded. The convoy stopped.

"Another flare Miss Pekoe, to the left but it's a lot closer."

"Tank Four, focus on the first flare; Tank Two on the second; Three on the third. Mine will be on the fourth flare," Orange Pekoe ordered.

"The Churchills' turrets are turning to face the flares. All Chindits focus your fire on the flag tank Churchill. Ready... move out!" Rosehip commanded her arm pointing forward. The Chindits crested the ridge so quickly the Churchill's had no time to react. Six-pounder shells and the 75mm hit the side of the flag tank Churchill in a matter of seconds and the white flag was raised. The battle was over before it was started.

**8th March, Tank Garage 18:38**

All the tanks had now been safely put back into the garage and the head mechanic made notes on what to fix for tomorrow. All the girls from both teams talked amongst themselves about the outcome of this battle.

"Did you see that Orange Pekoe's tank was wiped out really quick, wasn't it?!" Rosehip was saying to the other Chindit commanders.

"Yes, we know Rosehip. We were in the battle," Cranberry replied, laughing.

"I like this new way of doing things! I get to go fast and not be held back by those slow infantry tanks," Rosehip rattled on. The group nodded in agreement. Green Gunpowder suddenly and randomly walked off away from the group leaving them as the three girls just watched.

"Where is she going?" one asked. Rosehip just waved her hand and shrugged. Sarah had now finally hopped in, swinging herself along on her crutches. At once, Rosehip's eyes locked onto Sarah and she pelted over to her. Sarah braced herself for the incoming crash. The impact wasn't as bad as she imagined, but the bearhug did leave her a little breathless.

"Miss English Breakfast! You're amazing!" Rosehip yelled right into Sarah's ear.

"Ah… thanks. But you did great too,"

"It was like magic!"

"Yes it's very much magic," Sarah grinned.

Rosehip took a step back, her face a little perplexed. "Like really magic?"

"Yes, I'll show you. Could you give me a coin?" Rosehip scavenged her pockets, finding a 500 yen coin and placing it in Sarah's outstretched palm. "Okay watch the coin Rosehip," Sarah instructed.

She placed it on her thumb and then flipped the coin. The coin twisted and danced into the air, then fell back to earth as Sarah crossed her hands and one hand caught the falling coin.

"So Rosehip. Which hand is it in? The left one or the right one?" she said as she stretched out two closed fists.

Rosehip looked confident, her eagle-eyed vision 100% confident it being in her left hand which caught the coin. "The left," she answered.

Sarah opened her fist; it was empty.

"Oh, I meant the right" Rosehip instantly said, seeing the barren palm. Sarah opened her right hand and showed it to be empty too.

"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called 'The Pledge'. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a coin. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn't," Sarah smiled.

"The second act is called 'The Turn'. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back."

She raised her hand and reached behind Rosehip's ear, revealing the coin in process, to Rosehip's amazed face.

"That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call 'The Prestige'." Sarah went on as she put the coin in Rosehip's palm. "You were the magician on that battlefield today and this is how we will beat Ooarai. With magic!" she winked.

* * *

**11th March, Battlefield 3, 16:34**

The team's training continued. Battlefield three had seen better days. Tank tracks littered the once green field. The R department had made a custom attachment for all the Chindit tanks, to carry the boxes. So they could be released on the move without stopping. Giving the Chindits more time to get to their positions to ambush the Ooarai flag tank.

"Great!" Sarah said ecstatically as she watched through binoculars from the watchtower as the Chindits made a new record of dropping off the boxes and making it to the ambush spot behind the ridge. Orange Pekoe, standing next to her, seemed won over by Sarah's wacky plan.

"English. Darjeeling would say: 'If it's stupid but it works. It's not stupid', or something along those line!" Orange said putting an arm on Sarah's shoulder.

"That saying would work if this plan was stupid," Sarah said with a small grin. "I would give it a solid 4 out of 10 on the stupidity level though. This shouldn't be something Ooarai would never think we would do. So surprise is on our side," she pointed out.

She looked down at the display map. Catching her eye, she saw a red dot rigorously move off, the description of EB-Med-CrmV.

Sarah raised her binoculars to see her Cromwell picking up speed. Then incredibly breaking on one track causing the whole tank to wipe around 360 degrees in a matter of seconds.

"WHAT ARE THEY DOING!" Sarah yelled as she stormed off to the lift with Orange Pekoe following in a not too hot pursuit.

They made it to Battlefield Three with Orange Pekoe driving a universal carrier and Sarah sitting in the back with soft seats to carry crews around on the muddy ground. The carrier stopped next to the Cromwell; its engine ticking over. With all the hatches open, Sarah could hear the laughing and chatter between the crew.

"Hello!" Sarah yelled as she slowly and very awkwardly climbed out of the carrier.

Green Gunpowder's head popped up from the commander's hatch to inspect the noise. "Ah Miss English. How can we help?" she asked, pleasantly.

"You can help by not being so stupid!" Sarah yelled at her junior.

"What?"

"The match is in a couple of days. And look at the my ... the tank! You're lucky the tracks haven't split. The road wheels are not warped. And so many other things!"

"We were just practising..." Green muttered towards the enraged Sarah.

"No! Listen! You need to understand. If we lose this tank due to you being stupid. We could lose this whole match!"

"Miss English Breakfast, that's enough. Green Gunpowder has understood her lesson," Orange Pekoe piped up breaking the yelling match. "Haven't you?"

"Yes Miss Pekoe," Green rather muttered through gritted teeth as she gave Sarah a fury-based glare.

"Peppermint, Honeybush and Jasmine Pearl. Please exit the tank." Sarah said towards the tank. Boot clattered on metal as the girls lined up by the side of the tank. "You three should know better," Sarah said, rather disappointed. "Get an ARV to tow it back and get some engineers to check out if there is any damage to the tank. Dismissed."

The three of them bowed towards Sarah and set to work. Sarah climbed back into the carrier as it sped off to see Rosehip to have a meeting about her performance. Once out of earshot the girls began to talk.

"When did English become a bitch?" Honeybush asked as she rattled the track with her arms.

"Ever since Darjeeling began to shag her. She thinks she's the next big thing," Peppermint added back as she did very little by kicking the drive sprocket.

Green Gunpowder jumped down from the turret to speak to the group. "I'm sorry girls, it was my fault. I thought we best practice this in case we needed it,"

The girls around her nodded in agreement. Jasmine just did her checks without saying a word. She knew Sarah had changed, ever since everything bad happened to her. So she was willing to let this one slide as overall this was very reckless to do. Especially a couple days before the big match.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 - The fire burns within**

* * *

**11th March, JSF Matchgrounds, Public viewing area time 12:12**

The scene at the match day was electric. Every time Ooarai had faced St. Gloraina they had seemed to never beat them. Now, with Darjeeling out of the squad and Miho Nishazumi possibly being the greatest tank commander in the whole of the JSF, maybe even the whole of Asia, many Ooarai fans were seeing this as Ooarai's time for that long-craved win they had been waiting for.

Sarah and Darjeeling made their way into the stands, with Sarah swinging herself along on her crutches. As the match was on a school day she was wearing her standard St. Gloriana school uniform, but with a few additions. Since she was supporting the team, she had her famous tanker's beret on her head. She was also wearing one of her senha-do boots on her right leg, although this was more because it was a chilly day and the boot was much warmer than her school shoe. A thick sock covered her toes on her injured leg. Darjeeling, by contrast, was not in school uniform but had opted for a very smart navy blue ensemble of matching skirt and jacket which had a semi-military style to it. Sarah couldn't work out if Darjeeling was copying her or not, but Darjeeling's suit came with a beret in the same navy blue, which was currently perched elegantly on Darjeeling's head with its neatly braided hair.

Sarah had a satchel with a shoulder strap slung about her, which usually contained her school books but on this occasion was stuffed full of snacks for her and Darjeeling to eat during the match. Matches could be long, and it was always an excuse to eat snacks and junk food. Even Darjeeling was carrying a portion of one of her favourites - chips! Admittedly, they did have to stop several times for Sarah to hold the precious chips while Darjeeling dealt with hordes of admiring sensha-do fans who all seemed to want autographs or selfies.

"I do think that girl had a really pretty red bow," Sarah said to Darjeeling, after they had successfully escaped a particularly large group of fans.

"Yes but saying she will destroy me in the future rather put me off of her," Darjeeling said breezily.

"She was joking, hopefully!" Sarah smiled, as she looked back at the girl with her big red ribbon in her hair and pink double-breasted coat, with a slightly taller blonde girl with matching red and black checked skirt. She had been the one who had looked rather embarrassed at what her friend had said.

"I think I know who she was," Darjeeling added.

"Who?"

"They take part in another sort of Sensha-do. It's called Tankathlon. If I'm not mistaken. You could learn a lot from it, my little teacup. It's very fast paced and different. If all goes well in the competition maybe in the future you could ask Orange Pekoe to possibly have a small contingent of tanks and have a go yourself."

"I'll look into it," Sarah added back as they made their way up to their seats in the grandstand.

The duo eased themselves into their seats. There was a vacact one in front of Sarah and she gratefully propped her casted leg up on the back of it.

From behind came the familiar sound of a light stringed instrument being plucked. Sarah turned her head to see that just behind them was one of her idols. From learning about all the commanders this one was up there as one of the best but also the one she imagined she could emulate the most.

"Miss Mika, you've returned from your travels," Darjeeling greeted the girl with a smile, passing her a small bag of sweets. The shut-eyed Mika slowly opened the palm of her free hand, took the sweets and placed them in her pocket.

"The wind blows in good favour for you Darjeeling with this gift."

"Have you heard of this saying: 'Great things are done by a series of small things brought together'?"

Mika opened her eyes and nodded slightly. "The wind blows in the direction of an artist whose brushes paint the bare canvas of many famous artworks." She closed her eyes and strummed a calming melody on her kantele.

"Vincent van Gough," Darjeeling said back, taking some chips, dipping them in ketchup and placing them into her mouth. She deposited the rest of the bag in Sarah's lap and looked across to Sarah. "Are you going to say hello?" she asked, with Sarah still looking at Mika in awe, watching her fingers strum the tensioned wires.

"Oh um, Miss Mika, it is an amazing pleasure to meet you."

"The wind blows strong in your favour too Miss English, but it seems your heading into the darkest of storms, from which you have left, and will be returning again."

"That doesn't sound good," Sarah said with a very reserved chuckle.

Mika stopped playing her kantele then brought her eyes onto Sarah. "The wind works in strange ways, but the wind can only guide; it doesn't have to take you to your destination. The wind has been unfavourable recently with all those poor people a few months ago and with you so far with your brother."

"Hopefully Miss Darjeeling is giving me the guidance I need to end up at the correct destination," Sarah answered.

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment," Darjeeling said. "Mika who will you be supporting in this match?"

"The wind can blow in either direction. It sides with one at one moment then sides with the other the next. The red of St Gloriana and the blue of Ooarai, a match based on the spectrum."

* * *

**11th March JSF Matchgrounds, Battleground****, 2 miles away from the Hamlet, ****time**** 13:12**

The Infantry tanks under command of Orange Pekoe broke off from the Chindits. St. Gloriana's line up was very much like any other battle in Darjeeling's time. Orange Pekoe commanded the Churchill Mk VII and the other three tanks were Matildas, which were currently all headed towards the hamlet.

"So how much confidence do you have in Miss English Breakfast?" Rukuriri asked as her tank rocked and rolled at the spearhead of a defensive triangle, with the Churchill trundling along in the middle.

"I have confidence. Why do you ask, Rukuriri?" Orange Pekoe questioned, looking forward towards Rukuriri.

"Well, if she's wrong we are sitting ducks. Heading for the hamlet is a very risky move for us," Rukuriri answered.

"You know the plan Rukuriri…" Orange Pekoe stopped speaking and squinted. She could have sworn she saw a bush move in the distance. She drew up her binoculars and scanned that spot. "Eyes up! Tank heading 045. Looks to be the Type 89. Remember the plan, heavy section. Keep your eyes open but ignore the scout. Do not fire unless fired upon," she instructed.

* * *

**11th March ****JSF Matchgrounds, Battleground, Sunk ground near the Hamlet, ****time**** 13:33**

The light rumble of tank tracks slowly began to build. The predators watched their prey bumble into the trap.

"Flag is Panzer IV! It is surrounded on all sides by defenders. One, two … seven other units. Their whole team is heading to the hamlet," Green Gunpowder communicated her findings into the Cromwell's microphone. She began rattling off the familiar Ooarai team tanks and their rough position, and details of their very relaxed and loose formation. Green Gunpowder looked to her left the whole egare Chindit force, Rosehip being the nearest tank to her. Green Gunpowder watched as, Rosehip began to plot Ooarai's movement on a map laid out on top of the Crusaders turret.

"Tanks are half a click from your ambush position Commander Pekoe."

"Understood. You have permission to begin Operation Mad Jack 2, when you deem it fit."

"Yes Miss Pekoe we won't let you down!" Rosehip said ecstatically as if the ants had reached her pants. She watched with bated breath as the Panzer IV perfectly lined up in front of Rosehips hidden Crusader. She raised the flare gun. The red ball of light flew hundreds of meters into the air. The Ooarai convoy stopped immediately. "I have you in my sights now Miho!" Rosehip exclaimed.

The second, third and fourth flares shot into the blue sky and, like a deadly rainbow, came back to earth. As they did so, the Ooarai tanks scurried into a defencive formation around the Panzer IV with all barrels facing towards the flares.

"Chindits, attack!" Rosehip yelled. The Crusaders and Cromwell rose to the lip of the small rise that had been screening them, firing at the Panzer IV. As the smoke cleared a white flag was waving. It was, however, not the Panzer IV. All the shells had hit the Chi-Nu.

"Pull back!" was Rosehip's shocked call and expression to match. The tanks backed up with enemy fire falling heavily around the Chindits.

"They made the Chi-Nu look like the Panzer IV! God fucking dammit!" Rosehip said punching her thigh as she sat. "Five minutes. That's all we have to hold on for Orange Pekoe will have them flanked."

The Chindits rolled forwards and backwards, keeping them hull down as they exchanged fire with all the Ooarai tanks. Instantly Cranberry's and Vanilla's Crusader tanks were knocked out.

"Panzer IV spotted!" Green Gunpowder screamed over the radio as she stood as high as she could on the top of Cromwell's turret, ignoring the whizzing shells flying past her unfazed face. "At the back near the Lee. Cover me I'll move to intercept."

Rosehip's tank fired, knocking out the Type 89, then immediately moved back to hide itself. "Ye...wait I'm the commanding student of the Chindits! I give you the orders and this is a change of the backup plan!" Rosehip said back rather aghast at Green Gunpowder's assertiveness.

"Do you agree with me or not?!" Green Gunpowder responded back, her tone confirming her confidence in her execution of this new plan of attack.

"No, we are not attacking! We will stay harassing them. Hold for my orders!" Rosehip answered.

"Fine!" Gunpowder slid back into the frantic cromwell fighting compartment. The empty brass cases were still smoking, the smell of burnt cordite filling the air. She looked down to her crew. "Do you trust me, crew? To follow me to the end of the world and back again? Through thick and thin? Through glorious victory and crushing defeat?" she asked them, looking at every crew member in turn. A slow moment passed.

"Yes, you can trust me to trust you," Honeybush responded, her heart won over by Green Gunpowder.

"Me too!" Peppermint added. Gunpowder looked over to the most influential crew member; Sarah's strongest friend, Jasmine Pearl.

"Please Jasmine Pearl. We have this, I have every faith in every crew member here, and personally I couldn't have asked to have a better crew. But I need you to agree, Jasmine," Green Gunpowder begged, putting her hand on Jasmine's shoulder.

"I will," she said with a nod. The previous battles had shown how good a commander Green Gunpowder was, and if she asked for something daring it was worth the risk.

"Okay ladies, we will hit the flank of the Panzer IV. We will get that flag tank! Nothing can stop us!" she commanded, brimming her crew's morale to overflowing proportions.

The Cromwell turned right, staying hidden from the prying Ooarai gunners' eyes, as it lurched forward and the engine revved.

"Gunpowder! Get back here!" Rosehip yelled. "I'll make sure…" Green Gunpowder switched off the radio. She was wanted no more distractions from her task at hand.

"Peppermint over the lip now. Full speed," she roared.

"Yes Ma'am!" came the reply as the Cromwell turned and launched itself over the lip and headed directly towards the Panzer IV.

The 75mm fired on the move hitting the side of the turret of the M3 Lee, taking it out. Moving out from the carcass came the Panzer IV with its barrel pointed right at the Cromwell bearing down on it, now only about 200 yards away and closing fast.

Rosehip gritted her teeth, as she snatched at her microphone. "Move up, no prisoners!" she furiously yelled down to her driver. Rosehip's gunner looked towards her just to check if she was okay. She made eye contact with her gunner. "You heard my orders," she said. The tank moved out from the relative safety of it's hull down position. "Char…" The tank was slammed by a shell to the turret knocking out the Crusader.

The Infantry tanks were nearly in range as they advanced to the side of the Ooarai formation through an open field. Miho, having seen this, moved some of her stronger units up to cover that flank. The Tiger (P) fired its 88mm, hitting a Matilda with inevitable result.

Distracted by the new threat of the infantry tanks, Miho took her eyes off the Cromwell as it prepared to strike. "As we practiced!" Gunpowder yelled over the howls of the engine and the rattling of the tank; her head out of the turret with her eyes only focused on her target. "Ballet!" she yelled. As she spoke, the Panzer's barrel blazed with the projectile launched straight at the hull of the Cromwell.

Peppermint yanked the left bar back as far as it could go and slammed her foot on the accelerator. The Cromwell made a beautiful pirouette, the shell scratching the front plate of the armour but harmlessly ricocheted off into the distance. Now it was the turn of the Cromwell, the hull returned to its original heading with the barrel aiming dead ahead.

"FIRE!" Gunpowder bellowed. Jasmine's gun sight was full with nothing but the brown frontal armour of the Panzer IV. She pushed her foot down on the pedal.

BANG… THUD...

The sound of panting and of dripping sweat hitting the bottom of the tank became the loudest noise in the Cromwell. Green Gunpowder looked ahead of her, a rather thin smile grew into her lips, as she looked at the blue flag waving in conjunction with the white onto 50 yards away.

"Ladies, all in a day's work us. If I was in charge, all three of you would be receiving ten times the tea ration plus executive privileges," she joked on the microphone to her crew.

She looked up to see Miho opening her hatch, her brown hair moving slowly in the wind. "That was rather impressive, Miss... ah... I've never met you before?"

"Green Gunpowder. Miss Nishazumi and I'm honoured. It would have been a great spectacle seeing you fight my cousin a few years back."

"Who was she?" Miho asked as she leaned back on the cupola.

"Lady Earl Grey," Green Gunpowder replied.

"Oh ... I see how you get your sty..." Miho's voice was cut off by a _zip_ followed by a crash. Green Gunpowder covered her hand over her eyes as an instinctive response. She immediately placed her hand down to see the source of the noise and black impact spot on the side of the turret, with Miho's upper body slumped on the turret roof. Red marks gradually appeared on her face with black spots appearing on her upper body of her Sensha-duo uniform.

"GET MEDICS HERE NOW! WHO FIRED THAT FUCKING SHOT!?" Green Gunpowder yelled as she jumped out of her tank and scrambled onto Miho's to help her in any way possible. She climbed up onto the roof of the turret. "MIHO! MIHO!"

The sound of light grunting answered back. Green Gunpowder, now in a panic, placed her hands under Miho's armpits and lifted her out of the cupola, resting Miho's whole body on the top of the turret. As she turned her over, she saw that Miho's face was awash with blood.

"You're going to be fine Miho, I promise," Green Gunpowder said, taking off her jacket and using it to form a makeshift pillow for Miho.

Jasmine climbed out of the Cromwell.

"Medics on their way in three minutes! what happened!?"

Green Gunpowder didn't answer but turned her attention back to Miho, who had started wiping blood out of her eyes and mouth. "Make sure the girls inside are okay," she said rather slowly and compassionately to Green Gunpowder, who nodded at the request.

"Jasmine, check on Miho's crew," she instructed.

"They are only first years; I don't want them to see me like this," Miho added, sounding rather hushed.

Jasmine rushed over to the front of the hull of the Panzer IV and knocked on the hatch of the driver.

"Are you okay in there?" she asked.

* * *

**13th March, Kuromorimine head office, Time 14:56 **

It was a normal day for the ashen-haired commander of Kuromornine. Piles of emails that seemed to never constantly end on the computers screen. Fan mail and other such things via letters were neatly placed on the large caged bin with writing on a small white paper label stating 'Thank then bin.' Another saying 'Recycling' which had overtaken the other bin by quite some margin.

Erika really didn't like the admin side of things; she would rather be free to command her tanks in the practice grounds all day and night over this. Especially that her arm had become full of aches and pains, from writing for what seemed like most of the day. Sometimes she wondered about how different things would have been if she'd just ducked fast all those months ago before being invited with Maho to command for the very last time for Kuromorimine in that horrific one week battle.

A light knock at the door of her large and impressive office drew her eyes away from the blankness of the white pages. "Come in!" she called to the door.

The handle moved down and a very eager Koume made her way in, with folders clutched around her chest making sure gravity would not prevail against them.

"Good afternoon Kommandant. The information about the St Gloriana girls you asked for," she said as she walked across the room to Erika's desk.

"Good good," she said as she offered her hand to Koume to take one of the folders.

Koume made good time and passed the first folder over to Erika. "Orange Pekoe's..." she passed another one, as Erika moved some of the papers of her desk, most floating to the ground. "Rukuriri... Rosehip's... and this English Breakfast's." All four folders were now in a perfect line parallel to Erika. "I'm still a little confused the need for recon and stuff right now. We still need to fight other schools before them,"

Erika gave Koume a fearsome look. "These girls beat Ooarai. Fair and simple on the battlefield. If they can do that then what will they do to us? I want to beat these girls," she answered.

Koume nodded. "So, um Rukuriri is their new spy master and head of their intelligence section. It seems they are lacking at the moment as our spies are still not discovered yet. Under Assam this could never happen."

Erika nodded. "Orange Pekoe and Rosehip I know of but..." she murmured as she opened Sarah's folder and looked at a quickly snapped photograph with Sarah on her crutches hobbling to one of the matches with Darjeeling by her side, which was held in the top left hand corner with a paperclip. "...why is she important? This face though does look familiar?" she added trying her best to remember if they had ever met.

"So she's Darjeeling's girlfriend. But most likely her plaything. She's was the commander of the Cromwell and vice-commander of the Chindits but as you can see she is 'unable' to participate in matches at the moment. She has been taken over by a hot shot from St Gloriana's B team. We are still digging up information on the green-haired girl," Koume replied.

"It says here she's the joint vice-commander," Erika noted.

"Yes, most likely because of Darjeeling. She hasn't been known to show much skill in her previous battles. Some are of the opinion that she's a rookie and way out of her depth," Koume said ominously.

* * *

**The Spring League Tournament: Round 2 results**

Kuromorimine Girls' Academy 5-v-0 Anzio Girls' High School

Saunders University High School 5-v-2 BC Freedom High School

Ooarai Girls Academy 2-v-5 St. Gloriana Girls' College

Pravda Girls' High School 5-v-0 Chi-Ha-Tan Academy

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 2**

1st St. Gloriana Girls' College - 10

2nd Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 8

Joint 3rd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 7

Joint 3rd Pravda Girls' High School - 7

Joint 3rd Saunders University High School - 7

4th BC Freedom High School - 5

5th Anzio Girls' High School - 2

6th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 0


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 - The Red Coat Danced**

* * *

**13th March, Darjeeling's apartment, time 12:28**

Sarah lay in her usual spot; a Sarah-shaped mould in the sofa with her bad leg resting on a pillow on the coffee table. One hand was spinning a pen around her fingers, the other covering her forehead as she tried to think of the best way to write a report of what went wrong in the match. Unfortunately, all the arrows were pointing towards her plan. Apart from the injury to Miho, that is, which was very much not in the plan at all. She had heard on the grapevine that Miho was okay, aside from numerous cuts, bumps and bruises, but Sarah really did feel empathy for the girl.

Suddenly a rather erratic knocking of the door came at the door.

With no maid Darjeeling around, Sarah gathered up her crutches and stood up. She bit her lip as the blood returned to her plastered leg which had been resting raised up on the coffee table, but nonetheless began to hop towards the door.

The manic knocking continued.

"I'm coming Rosehip!" Sarah shouted, as there could be no other person in the whole of St. Gloriana that would hammer on a door in such a fashion.

"Hurry Miss English, hurry!" came Rosehip's voice.

Sarah quickened her crutching and yanked the door open.

"Whatever is the matter!?" she quizzed Rosehip.

The pink-haired girl was literally dancing from one foot to the other with her words tumbling over each other as she spoke.

"I'm here! I'm here I'm here Miss English!"

"I can see that, thank you Rosehip," Sarah said, unimpressed with this revelation. "Why are you here!?"

"Lady Orange Pekoe has called an emergency meeting of the senior members regarding what happened in the Ooarai match. She's just received a letter from the JSF," Rosehip blurted out. "I'm here to collect you and to take you there now!"

"Oh, fine…" Sarah said, a bit shocked by the suddenness but not really surprised. "Do I need to be in uniform or anything…?"

"No, just come now, now!" Rosehip said, capering around like a mad puppy. "Lady Orange Pekoe said at once!"

Sarah sighed. "I will, but I'm not very fast on these things…" she said, indicating her crutches.

"You don't need them; I've got this!" Rosehip said, pointing to one side. For the first time, Sarah noticed that there was a metal-framed pushable wheelchair next to Rosehip.

"Oh well, if you…" Sarah began.

"Yes yes!" Rosehip answered to whatever question Sarah was about to ask. "Just sit down, we need to go now, now!"

Rolling her eyes, Sarah flopped down into the seat of the waiting wheelchair, holding her crutches alongside her. Her plastered leg jutted out in front of her like a tank's main gun. She was about to open her mouth to speak again, but before she could Rosehip propelled the chair and breakneck speed towards the lift doors. They had to wait a few moments for the lift to descend to their floor; moments which were far too long for Rosehip who impatiently ran round and round the wheelchair as they waited. The lift arrived with a 'ping' and Sarah was rammed inside it as soon as the doors had opened wide enough to admit the wheelchair.

Once on the ground floor, they were off again with Rosehip literally running as she pushed Sarah in front of her. Two other residents of the dormitory block had to dive out of the way as Sarah and Rosehip came storming past.

"Rosehip! Slow down!" Sarah wailed from her precarious seat. Rosehip, however, seemed determined to deliver Sarah to the team meeting faster than the speed of sound and did not let up.

"Lady Orange Pekoe said hurry!" Rosehip said, defending her reckless speed.

"Rosehip! Watch out!" Sarah yelled, but it was too late. The wheels of the chair hit a kerbstone and the whole thing, with Sarah in it, overbalanced, throwing her out onto the pavement. She instinctively put out her arms to save herself and was rewarded with an unpleasant 'crack' from her right arm.

* * *

**13th March, Darjeeling's Apartment, time 22:30**

Very grumpy and feeling sorry for herself again, Sarah was sitting on Darjeeling's sofa, flicking through programmes on TV and not wanting to watch any of them. She had a brand new addition, namely a second plaster cast, this time from her upper right arm down to her knuckles with her arm held at ninety degrees.

The hours that had followed after her accident with Rosehip and the wheelchair had not been pleasant. Rosehip had nearly gone into hysterics following the crash. She had offered to race Sarah to the hospital herself, using the same wheelchair, but as this kind of behaviour had been the cause of the accident in the first place Sarah had declined and insisted that Rosehip call an ambulance (even though Rosehip's method would probably have got them to the hospital faster). At the hospital, Sarah had been x-rayed and diagnosed with a broken arm, which had needed to be set and placed in a plaster cast. The hospital staff, aware of Sarah's unusual behaviour from before, had given her a dose of her 'relaxant' drugs, which Rosehip found a little creepy. Even though Sarah was in a world of her own, Rosehip had turned into being hugely apologetic and also hugely annoying until Darjeeling had arrived to take care of Sarah and sent Rosehip away like a scolded dog.

The hospital didn't think Sarah was injured enough to keep in overnight so she had been discharged into Darjeeling's care, who seemed far too pleased to have another reason to nurse Sarah.

The only good thing that came out of the day was that Sarah now had a revised cast on her leg. Obviously, using a pair of crutches was going to be impossible with one arm in plaster too, but the doctor had told Darjeeling that Sarah's leg was healing well enough for her to start taking some weight on it. Sarah's old cast with the bend at the knee had been removed and a new one applied which was a little straighter. It still went all the way up her leg, which was annoying, but it did have a solid grey rubber heel under it so Sarah could begin to hobble about when she felt able to.

Sarah and Darjeeling had arrived back at Darjeeling's apartment to find Rosehip curled up asleep on the doormat. She had woken when they arrived and poured out a torrent of apologies and offers of recompense. She was at the point of promising to sleep at the foot of Sarah's bed and be her live-in slave when Sarah was forced to forgive her just to get rid of her.

Now Sarah and Darjeeling were in the living room, with Darjeeling doing a bit more revision for her exams before bed. Sarah flicked the TV off and pushed the remote away from her in disgust.

"Is something wrong?" Darjeeling asked.

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "I've broken my arm – of course something's wrong!" she said, a trifle snappy with her girlfriend.

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey," Darjeeling replied.

Sarah sighed inwardly. She knew she wasn't going to get much sympathy tonight; Darjeeling was in one of those moods.

"And you really can't blame Rosehip for what happened," Darjeeling added.

Sarah swallowed some of her wounded pride and sighed again. "I know…" she said, prepared to genuinely forgive her friend. "I suppose it was bound to happen…"

Sarah suddenly stiffened. Fearing she was in pain, Darjeeling asked if she was alright.

"It was bound to happen!" Sarah repeated. "It was bound to happen!"

"What are you talking about?" Darjeeling asked.

"Whoever sent Rosehip to pick me up with a wheelchair knew that she'd do it far too fast. They knew she'd crash and injure me!" Sarah said emphatically.

"Oh, come on!" Darjeeling reasoned. "No one could know for certain that would happen…"

"It was a certainty – it did happen!" Sarah illogically reasoned.

"But it was Orange Pekoe who called the meeting…?" Darjeeling interjected.

"Hmm…. Orange Pekoe…" Sarah lapsed into brooding silence.

"Anyway…" Darjeeling said, keen to change the subject from Sarah's conspiracy theories. "It's time for bed." She put down her pen and yawned.

Sarah nodded in agreement. "Can you help me put my pyjamas on?" she asked sheepishly.

Darjeeling slid over with a glint in her eye. "I was hoping we might not need pyjamas tonight," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Darjy… what?! Seriously?!" Sarah protested, shocked that her girlfriend was thinking thoughts like that. "I broke my arm today… I…"

"Trust me – I'll be gentle!" Darjeeling said, not taking no for an answer.

* * *

**14th March, Darjeeling's Apartment, time 15:30**

The very mundane day of work, and constant pain from her leg, and now from her casted arm was well, continued. Sarah was struggling, without Darjeeling's help, to sort out her leg so it was placed on a footrest as she sat on the sofa in the living room. Sarah was right handed, and with that arm now immobilised even the simplest of tasks became difficult and awkward. Not to mention that her arm was aching a bit more than it should have been; she had to admit that even the limited energetic manoeuvres that she had been making during the night had been too much for her. Anyone one in their right mind would have said 'no, not tonight' and Sarah was wondering why she didn't. She supposed that was what happened when one was in love. The knee of her bad leg was especially sore and throbbing after her antics. She had been in the curious position of having her plastered leg pointing straight up in the air at one point, when her tired muscles had been unable to support the weight any longer and it had slipped to crash against the bedroom wall with a jarring shock.

She was looking at her laptop which was opened on the coffee table with intelligence data of the next team that St. Gloriana would face displayed on the screen. That school was Anzio. Their predicted lineup, from what Rukuriri's intelligence was saying, was as expected and Sarah was working on plans to counter whatever was foreseeably thrown at them. Her concentration was, however, waning, and it was a blessed relief when the phone rang. It was a number she hadn't seen before as she picked up the phone rather hesitantly.

"Hello, I'd like to speak to Sarah Alexander please," a rather calm and relaxed English voice said.

"Yes? That's me." Sarah answered back with the same calm but with a rather sceptical tone.

"Yes, so I'm Alison Bowes, from the Cotton and Miller Solicitors," the voice said.

"Sorry, but I don't quite understand why you are calling me?" Sarah asked, wondering if this was some sort of hoax.

"We are the solicitors dealing with the estate of the late James Alexander. I need to talk to you about James's will, to be exact," Alison explained. Sarah's ears pricked up at this rather startling revelation.

"But why has it taken so long? Has my father been told this?"

"Firstly the reason why it has been delayed is because of London United's HR department having problems producing his will, they only found a copy of one yesterday in his old office inside one of his family pictures. Which has been verified to be his and not a forgery. And the second answer to your question is that my colleague next to me is contacting your father as we speak..." she passed for a second as a couple of murmurs could be heard in the background. "... it looks like your father understands the terms of the will insofar as it applies to him. So can I read out the segments of the will in relation to yourself?" the solicitor asked.

"Yes... sure," Sarah answered back rather nervously. It was great to know something was found as all of James's things had been left untouched now for ages, but somehow she didn't feel it was right that she was getting something.

"James's will states: To my dear sister, I leave a sum of ..." Sarah gasped she couldn't believe it one that he had that amount of money and two that he actually called her 'his dear sister.' "...on the condition that it is for the purchase of her own tank for Tankery..."

"James you bastard, you just couldn't let me have some money to buy a house or something could you," she muttered under her breath.

"...Other belongings relating to Tankery such as uniforms and other Tankery memorabilia is to be hers. That is all," the women stated. "The money will be transferred into your account in the next couple of days, however as this is a rather strange request you will have to provide us a receipt of purchase of this vehicle, otherwise your part of the Will will be classed as void. Do you agree to these terms?"

"Y..yes." Sarah said rather emotionally now as everything seemed to flip on its head.

"Sarah, thank you for your time and I wish you good luck."

"Thank you, um have a good day," Sarah mumbled.

"You too. Goodbye." The line died and the low drone of the phone line filled her ears as she held her ears against the phone for a moment, then put it down to await the inevitable call from her father. As she predicted, it shortly followed and she desperately struggled with her hampered arm to swiped the phone to answer the call in time.

"Well, a new tank then. Your very own ..." her father said by way of introduction, sounding very cheerful.

"But what was in the will for you?" Sarah asked, interrupting him.

"Basically anything that isn't yours is mine. So his flat, car etc." he replied.

"Was there any conditions on yours?" she asked.

"No there wasn't. I think he really wanted you to do your best in Tankery, and having your very own tank would always be a good thing. Think about it you wouldn't be cut up in traffic would you ever again if you have a tank. Speaking off, what one are you going to get?"

"I don't really know... but something British as otherwise, St Gloriana would kick me out," she said with a mirthless laugh.

"Well, that's true..." her father went on. At this moment Darjeeling walked into the living room with a tray with two steaming teacups and some shortbread biscuits in the middle on a small plate. "... you know what suits you so get something you want don't let others stop you," he advised.

"Well, I would like a Panther but St Gloriana doesn't really have spares for a Panther. So it would have to be something British," she repeated as Darjeeling placed the tray on the table. Darjeeling had only heard a small snippet of the conversation but she knew what was up, as a small childish but yet devilish smile grew till it wrapped around her face.

"Ok Sarah you have the final say good luck and hunting, I mean shopping," her father finished.

"Love you, dad," Sarah said in goodbye.

"You too." They blew kisses to each other and ended the call.

Sarah looked over to Darjeeling's beaming face. "What?!"

"Tank shopping?"

"Well, kind off..."

* * *

**16th March, The Tea Garden Lecture Hall, 11:00**

Texting with her left hand was something Sarah was having to get used to. She was trying to reply to a text from Orange Pekoe.

"I need 2 speak 2 u about something. I hope ur OK? :-)" it read.

"Sure. It looks like I won't be in a tank for a while" Sarah typed. "But I can still make plans and be the team strategist."

"OK sounds good 2 me! :-)" Orange Pekoe replied.

And so, an hour later, she was getting ready to struggle over to the Tea Garden as Orange Pekoe had called a full team meeting, with the seniors to meet prior to that. Sarah's red tank jacket was tight and awkward to put on over her plastered arm, but Darjeeling had assured Sarah that she could attend the meeting in her ordinary school uniform, as she clearly had exceptional circumstances.

Wearing school uniform was also slightly embarrassing, as the standard St. Gloriana sheer black tights, which were part of the uniform, were an issue with her entire left leg in bulky plaster. Darjeeling had solved this issue for Sarah by lending her some stockings, enabling Sarah to wear a single one on her right leg. The St. Gloriana school skirt was notoriously short, however, and Sarah was conscious that she was occasionally showing a strip of bare upper thigh between her stocking top and her skirt when she moved or the wind caught it.

There was, however, no real alternative. In order to still feel part of the Sensha-do team, Sarah had her trusty black tanker's beret on her head. She was planning to walk (as best she could) into the school grounds as she felt she needed to get confident and proficient with moving around while resembling an Egyptian mummy. Nonetheless, this would be the first time that she had attempted anything more than hobbling around Darjeeling's apartment. She had one of her crutches tucked under her good arm for support and balance.

"Bye!" she called to Darjeeling as she opened the door.

"Bye, my little teacup! Good luck and take care!" Darjeeling called from within the apartment.

After taking the lift to the ground floor (stairs were too much of an advanced lesson) Sarah realised that her journey time was going to be about three times as long as it normally would be. Walking any distance with a heavy leg and unable to bend that knee or ankle was no picnic, and so she was actually about five minutes late when she hobbled into the meeting room that was adjacent to the large lecture theatre where the meeting was to be held

Sarah had been expecting to have to make her apologies for her tardiness to the assembled seniors, but as she entered she saw that Orange Pekoe was the only living soul in the room.

As she looked about her quizzically, Orange Pekoe seemed to read her mind. "The entire team will be here later on," Orange Pekoe said offering Sarah a seat near the head of the table.

Perplexed, Sarah limped down the length of the room to the seat. 'She could have chosen one nearer the door!' she silently complained in her mind. "I thought all the seniors were meeting beforehand?" Sarah asked as her snail's pace journey came to an end and she slid into the seat. "I briefed them yesterday," Orange Pekoe explained. "In the meeting that you were, um, unable to attend. So, Miss English Breakfast; how's the arm?" Orange Pekoe asked, obviously trying to introduce some pleasantries.

"Well, I don't want to sound repetitive, but it's broken. It hurts. Like my leg, and knee, and ankle..." Sarah complained.

"Sorry to hear," Orange Pekoe said without sounding all that sorry. Not wanting to hear Sarah's life story, she got to her main talking point.

"Well, sadly I have some bad news. Firstly our match against Ooarai. The JSF, after deliberating, have decided on a punishment for breaking the rules. They have chosen to deduct all over our points for that match..." Sarah was about to say something in the lines of 'What! Why!' But Orange Pekoe must have anticipated this by raising her palm up to Sarah's face. "...For breaking rule 5 part 4. Attacking a vehicle which has been declared inoperable. It's obvious from all the replays that one of our tanks fired on an immobilised tank, and after the match was over too boot. The shot came from my Churchill, my gunner thought I had told her to fire when I was out of the tank. She absolutely swears she was following my instruction, but she's a young girl, so I would say the adrenaline rush and lack of experience became too much for her and was the root of the problem. So we were first; now with one swoop we are joint third with BC Freedom, and with three other teams sharing joint second place. Only Anzio and Chi-Ha-Tan are behind us," Orange Pekoe explained the devastating news.

"I see," Sarah said. She really felt upset by this; all of her hard work to now could for nothing. It was a real kick in the teeth.

"But there is also more bad news. The governors of the school disapproved of our tactics and have told me not to use them again," Orange Pekoe said with a shrug.

This was now the final nail in the coffin for Sarah. "Didn't they watch the match?! We beat Ooarai. The Ooarai," she expounded.

"Thank you, Miss English," Orange retorted like a parent to their child when they want them to stop speaking. Sarah knew now wasn't the time to make noises anymore. "Such tactics do not fit with the St. Gloriana style of Sensha-do and they are quite firm on this. It's no use arguing," Orange Pekoe said calmly.

A light knock from the main door made them both turn. The door opened a small amount, and Rukuriri's head popped around it. "Everybody is here Miss Orange Pekoe," she said.

"Good, we are ready to join you," Orange said back, raising to her feet.

Rukuriri gave a light nod, opening the door to its fullest extent. Sarah could see the last few members of the team filing into the adjacent lecture hall, walking in quietly and respectfully.

Orange Pekoe let Sarah go ahead of her, but had already overtaken her before Sarah got out of the meeting room door. Walking as normally as she could manage, Sarah could still feel all eyes on her as she entered the hall and slowly trudged down the central aisle to take her seat in the front row. Sarah was painfully aware that everyone else was wearing their red tank jackets and she was the only one in blue school uniform. She flopped down in her seat beside Rukuriri with her embarrassing plastered leg jutting out in front of her. Soon Orange Pekoe called the meeting to order.

It was an awkward meeting. Orange Pekoe talked about the safety breach that had caused injury to Miho during the last match, and how all crews would be doing extra safety practice. Orange Pekoe also displayed a chart of the current leader board for the Spring Tournament, pointing out how St. Gloriana had been docked all the points they had achieved for the Ooarai match due to the breach of the safety rules. There were murmurs and expressions of annoyance at St. Gloriana's low position within the league.

Orange Pekoe then moved on to talk about Sarah herself.

"One of our vice-commanders, English Breakfast, had managed to have another accident…" Orange Pekoe announced. Sarah didn't think this terminology was entirely fair; 'managed to have another accident' made it sound as if it was Sarah's own fault!

Rosehip suddenly yelled out from where she was sitting. "What happened to Miss English is entirely my fault and I'm sorry and…"

"Rosehip be quiet!" Orange Pekoe ordered from the front of the lecture hall. Orange Pekoe continued speaking about Sarah. "Unfortunately she won't be able to join us in matches for a considerable while, but we have agreed that she will stay on with the team in an advisory capacity and assist with planning and strategy."

Sarah choked down a lump in her throat. 'An advisory capacity'?! 'Assist with planning and strategy'?! This hadn't been how she'd understood what Orange Pekoe had communicated to her. She had thought she was going to be the Chief Strategist!

Sarah was too lost in her own thoughts to pay much attention to the rest of the meeting until Orange Pekoe brought things to a conclusion by asking "Does anyone have any other business to discuss?"

Normally the answer to this was 'no', but Sarah suddenly spoke up. She had planned to keep her plans to buy her own tank a secret, at least until she had discussed it with the main members of the team, but being sidelined by Orange Pekoe in front of everyone had wounded her pride and she felt she wanted some attention.

"I'm buying a tank," she said out loud. There was a murmur of voices as everyone looked at her. Orange Pekoe raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"So, um… yeah. I'm buying a tank," Sarah said muttering to herself feeling a little bit sheepish now and not sure where she was going with that line now that she's said it.

"A disabled access tank," she thought she heard someone say behind her. She turned sharply in her seat to see who it might have been, but the sudden movement caused pain to shoot up from her broken arm and she yelped.

"That… will be very exciting, for all of us, I'm sure," Orange Pekoe said. "However, now I think we could all do with a break," she finished. Rukurui covered her mouth to hide a sudden fit of laughter. Orange Pekoe looked confused for a moment until she realised she had inadvertently made a pun about Sarah's condition. Sarah turned bright red and Orange Pekoe raised an apologetic eyebrow to her.

The girls all stood and walked out as they chatted amongst themselves. Sarah stayed sitting just to gather her thoughts and also not to hold up anyone behind her with the glacial pace speed.

* * *

**16th March, The Club Room, 16:00**

It was customary after these team meetings for everyone to retire to the student common room, or 'The Club Room' as it was known, to socialise and drink tea. Sarah found she had quite a group around her, all keen to know what tank she would be buying and enthusiastically offering their own unwanted advice. No one seemed thoughtful enough to get her a chair, however, and her left leg was starting to throb again. She also didn't have any tea; the way her plaster cast held her right arm and hand made it awkward for her to hold the saucer, and it was unthinkable that a St. Gloriana student would have a cup of tea without a saucer. Sarah was quite glad when a first-year student told her that Orange Pekoe wanted to see her in the commander's office.

The parquet flooring was loud under the solid heel of her leg cast as she clumped her way over to the office door. She opened it to find that both Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri were in there.

"Ah, English Breakfast," Orange Pekoe said with a smile.

"No one else sounds like that when they walk," Rukuriri sniped in a jokey sort of way. Sarah really didn't know what she'd done is made her be in Rukuriri's bad books.

"We've been having a think about the team structure," Orange Pekoe began. We're facing Anzio next, and while we've yet to decide on an exact strategy, it's likely that they will employ a lot of fast tankettes such as CV33s. We're almost certainly going to use the Cromwell, and we both feel that Green Gunpowder should be in command of it, with your crew."

"But…" Sarah protested, although not sure exactly how to argue against this.

"You clearly won't be fit enough for this next match and the Cromwell crew are working really well with Green Gunpowder in training and in the match against Chi-ha-tan and especially in the match against Ooarai," Rukuriri said.

"They work well with me too!" Sarah protested.

"I'm sure they do" Orange Pekoe soothed. "But all crews are interchangeable at St. Gloriana; you know that. Also, when you buy this tank of your own, you may very well have different crew requirements to those of the Cromwell." Grudgingly, Sarah had to acknowledge that this was true.

"There is also the question of battlefield command," Rukuriri said as a reminder to Orange Pekoe.

"Ah yes," Orange Pekoe said. She saw Sarah's raised eyebrow and explained. "There needs to be a clear command structure during matches; especially after what happened in the last match," she said. "The team needs to know who the vice-commanders are, and as you can't take part in matches for a while I need to think about your replacement."

"Replacement?!" Sarah squeaked.

"Not a replacement, I mean… stand-in. While you are off," Orange Pekoe said, sounding like she was backtracking.

"Rosehip is next in terms of a junior command position, and yet…" Rukuriri said.

"Yes…" Orange Pekoe said slowly. "I am not convinced she is right to take over as a vice-commander. She's good at what she does, but this would probably be too much for her. English? Do you have any thoughts on the matter?" Orange Pekoe suddenly shot at Sarah.

"Um… Nilgiri?" Sarah said, caught off guard.

"Hmm… she lacks the presence of a commander…" Orange Pekoe mused. "I will have to think about this. Anyway, don't let us keep you English. I suspect you have some tank catalogues you want to browse? I would personally suggest a Crusader!" she said, trying to sound friendly.

"Um… yes… OK… I'll have a think," Sarah said, awkwardly withdrawing from the room as Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri turned their attention to some papers on the commander's desk.

* * *

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 2**

1st Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 8

Joint 2nd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 7

Joint 2nd Pravda Girls' High School - 7

Joint 2nd Saunders University High School - 7

Joint 3rd BC Freedom High School - 5

Joint 3rd St. Gloriana Girls' College - 5

7th Anzio Girls' High School - 2

8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 0

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for the review hakimsohit51 but sadly Miho escapes the clutches of death this time. Hopefully, you're looking forward to more chapters and more should be out. (Not giving a time frame as I and Sharky have many many things to do and trust us you'll see why) Again if you haven't check out Sharkys images they are great!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 - The eyes of oceans**

* * *

**22nd March, Darjeeling's Apartment, 15:02**

The low position of St. Gloriana in the tournament league table was depressing to the members of the Sensha-do team, but their thoughts were buoyed up looking forward to the mid-term ball, traditionally known as 'The Leavers' Ball', which was fast approaching. This was a grand party organised as a farewell to the departing senior members of the team and as a welcome to those who would be filling their shoes. Now no one was more excited than the centerpiece of the show Darjeeling, who had insisted that she wanted one of those old styled masquerade balls.

Sarah hobbled back to Darjeeling's flat, trying her best to get back without having to delay Darjeeling more than necessary. Sarah thought going for a walk would be a good idea, fresh air in her lungs would help induce some magical healing process, but alas the air did nothing but make her knee hurt more and also made her arm groan. She got to the bedroom as Darjeeling had said her clothes were where she said they would be, at the end of the wardrobe. Near her Sensha-duo uniform were her dresses. For the masquerade ball she didn't really have anything ballroom-esque, as she never in her wildest dreams thought something like this in her life would happen.

"Do you know what you are going to wear?" a curious Darjeeling asked, kissing the side of her cheek as she finished speaking, which made Sarah's heart swell.

"I really don't know, I should really go shopping. But all the shops would be closed by the time I get there." Sarah just looked down to her leg and shook her head.

"Nothing was said about style. And anyway, this one is very much you." Darjeeling lifted out a relatively plain blue cocktail dress with two cream decorative bows on it. Sarah looked at it; she liked to wear this on days out on special occasions.

"But would it be really appropriate?"

"If not, I'll make sure no one complains." Darjeeling added with a little smile.

"But what do you have?" Sarah asked.

"That's a surprise for you later." She gave Sarah a little wink and headed to the ensuite, throwing off her cardigan which landed on Sarah's head. Sarah took off the cloth blocking her vision, the sweet smell of Darjeeling's perfume oozed from it filling her nostrils. She made her wobbly way to her side of the bed and sat on it, taking off her school jumper and blouse, opening up her bedside cabinet taking out two clear bag things that the doctors had given her so she could shower without getting the plaster casts wet. By the time her preparation was done, and only her undergarments were on, Darjeeling had walked out of the steaming room, with a wet towel wrapped around her body.

"You know I could just give you a scrub. Like the old days." Darjeeling chuckled a little.

Sarah stood and walked over, placing the side of her head on Darjeeling's chest, listening to her heart sing slowly to the beautiful relaxing rhythm.

"Thanks but I'll be fine." She took a firm grip of the towel and yanked it as she laughed like a child while moving as quickly as she was able towards the ensuite.

"Give it back" Darjeeling said rather timidly and playfully, obviously she didn't care much for her stolen garment.

Sarah chucked back the towel and closed the door. She somehow managed to have a long shower without any incidents, grabbed a dry towel from the towel rack and slowly but surely made her way out.

"Someone is happy today," Darjeeling added, sitting on the end of the bed and smiling towards Sarah while wearing a white silk nightgown.

"A little tease wouldn't go a miss," Sarah quipped.

"Sarah, sit there. I want you to look. 'Do not dissect a rainbow'. In other words, do not destroy a beautiful phenomenon by over analyzing it," Darjeeling said, ushering Sarah towards the only chair in the bedroom - a rather exquisite Louis XIV style one.

Sarah sat on the chair facing a mirror. The dresser held a figurative ton of makeup products. Darjeeling walked behind and rested her hands on Sarah's shoulders. "My lovely princess, my canvas for the artist, for with this picture I will paint a thousand awe-struck words."

"That's lovely but just some foundation will be fine" Sarah answered back, resting her head on her left shoulder feeling Darjeeling's hand against her plastered arm.

"For you, it's worth the time and effort," Darjeeling said as she kissed the top of Sarah's head. She took out some straighteners, wrapping a large chunk of her hair and began curling it. She repeated the process until her pin curls were fresh to the eyes.

"Okay, you have to have your eyes closed the whole time. I want this to be a surprise once it's done," Darjeeling instructed. Sarah gave a slight nod, at which Darjeeling commenced her make-up. It was a long and tedious ordeal. Darjeeling was very precise, having every millimetre perfectly covered forehead to chin in the correct product for each area; no area of skin was left untouched.

"You can open your eyes." Sarah did so just praying that Darjeeling hadn't messed this up, as really, she couldn't say anything bad as she had spent nearly an hour or more on her face, and she also didn't want Darjeeling to be upset on this day of all days. There would probably be consequences if she did so! Luckily, the sight reflecting back was a smooth, lightly pale look with a little pink on the cheeks, nothing too over the top but would work great with her dress.

"Thank you - it's perfect! Oh, um, could you help me put the dress on?"

"Well of course. I've been doing it for weeks so it's not like you're hiding anything," Darjeeling replied. She took off the towel and began placing on her underwear, and taking her time when it came to certain areas, then she then began to help Sarah put her dress on.

"Now the only thing to put on is your shoes, or shoe in this case" Darjeeling giggled.

Darjeeling grabbed a pair of cream high heels from one of the wardrobes, separating left and right. She brought the right one over and placed it on the seated Sarah's foot, as if it was a live action version of Cinderella.

"Oh, and it fits perfectly!" Darjeeling added slowly standing and offering her hand to Sarah, who took it in turn to stand. She did so awkwardly as there was a height difference between both legs now due to the high heel. Smiling, Sarah took a timid step forward. The lightning rod of pain shot straight into Sarah's bad leg, especially under her kneecap. Sarah let out a howl of pain.

"Are you OK?!" Darjeeling instantly said, taking her hand. Sarah shook her head.

"My knee! My knee!" she screamed out. She slowly sat back down in the chair with Darjeeling's assistance.

"It's the heels," Sarah said rather ashamedly as her knee throbbed.

"You don't have to wear them," Darjeeling said comfortingly, holding Sarah's slightly moist palm.

"But, I want to… for you."

"Ah, you're so sweet, like an adorable little teacup," Darjeeling fussed over her.

"Please let me try again. It might just be that I stretched myself a bit too much maybe," Sarah proffered.

"No, you will hurt yourself more, I can't have you do this for me my little teacup. Here..." Darjeeling lent over and grabbed one of Sarah's casual flat-soled plimsoll-style shoes. "These will be fine and if people mock you for them... well I will have stern words, no matter who it is, from Katyusha to Miho." She kissed the top of Sarah's hand. "I promise you."

"Thank you. I don't want to sound like a broken record but what are you wearing?"

"Be patient, you'll see the result all in good time. 'Good things come to those who wait', as they say" Once the idioms started it was best just not to answer back, so Sarah just gave her a smile.

"There is a car waiting to take you to the Manor House. I'll see you there, my little teacup," Darjeeling said, giving her a wink and placing Sarah's black and white rather scuffed shoe on Sarah's foot, tying the worn laces for her. She helped Sarah up, giving her a hug once she was sure that Sarah was in no pain.

Sarah now started hobbling her way out to the awaiting car. She knew she would walk more easily and be a lot more steady holding her single crutch with her good arm, but she knew Darjeeling would prefer to see her looking as 'normal' as possible. She also knew she would need her only working hand to hold a drink or something during the evening event. Her cocktail dress swayed with every trudge of the cast as she walked heavy-handedly down the stairs and to the front door.

A black-tinted Jaguar saloon car was there confronting her glance as she opened the front door. A suited chauffeur opened his driver's side door, moving swiftly to her aid opening the car door for her, raising his eyebrow only slightly at the state of his passenger. Sarah, feeling rather embarrassed by this, just moved uncomfortably towards the open door giving the driver a quick smile and a nod, contorting her leg and arm as best as she could to get the easiest access to the car.

In the end the driver had to hold her good arm and slowly lower her into the car at a ninety-degree angle as she swivelled to face forward, this was rather undignified at the best of times. but she knew the worst was to come for when she had to remove herself from the luxury car.

The car moved off slowly, winding down the main roads heading to the St Gloriana Sensha-do Manor House. Where Orange Pekoe deemed would be most acceptable and fitting for such a function. The car slowly wound down in speed as the journey's end came into view. The lovely driver came around and very promptly helped her out of the car making the ordeal look a lot more graceful compared to the beginning. Ahead of her was Orange Pekoe in a light pink dress going all the way down to her feet but her overall look was nothing out of the ordinary. Rukuriri, on the other hand, was vastly different; her normal plaited ponytail was untangled and her brown long hair cascaded below her shoulders and sparkled in the glow of the evening sun. Her dress, being a navy blue slim-fitting number, finished just above her ankle, revealing a pair of black high heels. It was hard to not say Rukuriri did look amazingly beautiful.

"So are you looking forward to this?" Orange Pekoe asked with a small smile.

"Well... to be honest, no. I just want to make people happy with my presence as I can't really do anything more than that. I think dancing will be out of the question," Sarah added with a rather reserved chuckle. "I heard rumours that all the hairdressers had been booked up months in advance for today,"

"Yes it is. I'm lucky I booked mine early in the year," Rukuriri said as she combed her fingers through her hair. "It's so nice a soft," she murmured as if in a little daydream.

"So this is the plan, the other commanders and other invitees will be arriving shortly," Rukuriri explained as she walked towards the closed oak doors inside the manor, the walls still covered in golden framed paintings of famous St Gloriana commanders and banners of past glories. "We have done this sort of party before for departing commanders, so the majority of the work is mostly the same. We will have drinks and light refreshments as the guests arrive. We start the formal part at seven o'clock sharp with a speech from old commander to the new, and then the new commander to the crowd. Then we have toasts to the school, the team, and the old and then the new commander. After that, there will be dancing in the ballroom…" Rukuriri's glance at Sarah seemed to say 'for those that are able'. "Buffet food will be served from eight and then the evening is more informal, although it is customary for the new commander to give a speech of thanks at the end. Got it!?"

Sarah nodded.

The main large oak doors of the manor were wide open with a red carpet with golden trim on the edges rolled down and through inside, between the two split curved staircases, which lead to Darjeeling's old (but Orange Pekoe's new) office. The carpet continued to and under some smaller closed oak doors. The doors opened and Sarah and Rukuriri waltzed into the ballroom. It too was grand in scale and decoration as well, with its large chandelier hanging from the middle of the room, large golden rimmed Georgian style windows up to 20 feet tall, pouring in the beautiful vista beyond. Chairs and tables were dotted around the outside edges of the ballroom. At one end was a long table with one grand looking chair in the middle.

"Darjeeling will sit in that chair, and once the night is over that, the throne will be Orange Pekoe's." Rukuriri added, "Relax us look lovely no need to worry about things. Just don't embarrass or upset Darjeeling."

* * *

**22nd March, The Manor House, 16:37**

The foreign guests still hadn't arrived just yet but Orange Pekoe left to supervise some element of the proceedings, making sure everything went like clockwork. Almost immediately Assam joined Sarah and Rukuriri, which was good as they were standing in the middle of the empty dancing area looking a little lost. Assam was already dressed in her evening gown with her long hair tied up in her trademark bow, but this time one that matched the colour of her ball-esque looking dress. It was just odd seeing Assam wearing a black ball mask covering the top of her face.

"Hey!" she greeted Sarah, giving her a warm but gentle hug. She enquired how Sarah was, as they had not seen each other for some while. Like Darjeeling, Assam had taken a back seat in the Sensha-do team and was presumably concentrating on her exams too.

The conversation between the three girls quickly turned to the Spring Tournament, although no one wanted to mention the match between St. Gloriana and Ooarai.

"Did you see the Pravda - Chi-Ha-Tan match?" Assam asked. "Pravda won convincingly, of course. I noticed the tactics they used were exactly the same as ours!"

"You mean they copied us?" Sarah asked the older girl.

"Oh come on, getting Chi-Ha-Tan to do a stupid charge and then shoot them down at one's leisure isn't exactly an original tactic, is it?!" Rukuriri pointed out.

At this point, the trio was interrupted by Rosehip, who was inexplicably wearing a maid's uniform.

"May I get you any drinks ladies?!" she said in a voice that was just a bit too loud.

"Rosehip… why are you dressed as a maid?! You're supposed to be attending this ball as a member of the team…" Rukuriri started, but was stopped as Assam held up her hand.

"It's alright. Rosehip asked to be one of the serving staff as she gets bored just standing around, and we wouldn't want that. It's been cleared with Darjeeling," she said, with emphasis on the final sentence which ended any further discussion on the matter. Assam, however, wasn't done with Rosehip.

"That's very good Rosehip, but do you think you could try to say it a bit more softly, and in a more lady-like manner. 'Would you care for any drinks, madam?'. See, like that. And when you are carrying a tray of drinks, please remember to SLOW DOWN!" Assam instructed Rosehip in her duties, to Sarah's amusement and Rukuriri's apparent annoyance.

"Also the ball hasn't actually started yet, so there is no need to be serving the drinks just yet. But… since you're here… I'll have a cranberry juice, please. And whatever Miss Rukuriri and Miss English want." Assam continued. Rukuriri declined and excused herself from the group to assist with the last minute preparations. Sarah also said no to a drink for the moment so Rosehip left at top speed to fulfil Assam's request.

"Sweet little thing, isn't she?" Assam said, looking after Rosehip's departing form. "Useful too, depending on the task at hand, of course," she said. "You are aware that Darjeeling requested that there should be alcohol available tonight? Some champagne, wine and beer I believe. Rosehip can get you some if you want it later."

"Not for me thanks; it wouldn't be advisable as I'm still taking painkillers, and besides, I don't need to be any more unstable than I already am!" Sarah said with a humourless laugh.

"A good point," Assam agreed. "I won't be having too much, but Darjeeling probably will. I can't blame her though; it's her special night. Personally, I don't think it's a great idea. Last time Darjeeling requested alcohol at a party we later found her face down in a puddle, wearing a silly hat, and singing a song about goblins!" Sarah was quite surprised by this revelation.

"More importantly..." Assam continued "...I'm just glad we managed to keep her away from the cooking! When she heard that Maginot and BC Freedom Academy were going to be here, she wanted to make a special French dish with Scarlet Pimpernel sauce!"

"What exactly is Scarlet Pimpernel sauce?!" Sarah asked with a mix of curiosity and horror.

"Well…" Assam began to explain Darjeeling's recipe. "Apparently, you take a large, ripe frog. Squeeze it…" Assam moved her hands as if she was wringing out a wet towel to illustrate her point.

"Yes, yes, alright…!" Sarah interrupted; the horror element of her feelings having won.

"I see that Katyusha has kept command of the Pravda team," Assam commented to Sarah, moving the conversation on from vile amphibian recipes. "Honestly, I wonder if anyone will ever prize her loose! I'm rather glad she's not coming tonight."

"Oh, is she not?" Sarah queried. To be honest, she had no real idea who was on the guest list or not.

"No… she made some excuse. Her Vice-Commander Nonna is coming in her stead. Suits me; I never really got on with Katyusha. I don't trust her," Assam concluded.

"Oh?" Sarah asked, hoping Assam might give away some juicy gossip.

"She can be alright, at times," Assam conceded. "But I'm not sure she always fights fairly. That applies to the whole of Pravda, in my view."

"What do you mean?" Sarah queried. She'd never really fought either against or alongside Pravda so had limited experience of them.

"You know, dodgy tactics, unexplained happenings, things like that," Assam said lightly. "The day before a match the opposing team's star gunner is found to have very sadly, accidentally, brutally cut off her head while brushing her hair; that sort of thing" Assam exaggerated.

Sarah gave a little chuckle but she didn't know if Assam was being serious or not. "Who else will be here?" she asked.

"By St. Gloriana tradition the commanders of all the main Sensha-do teams are invited, although I believe the invitation to Jatkosota High got 'lost in the post'. We just can't afford for the silverware to go missing again. Also, the invitation is extended to former commanders, both of St. Gloriana and other schools. So Maho Nishizumi will be here with Erika Itsumi; sadly our own Earl Grey was otherwise engaged and so couldn't attend. I don't think Darjeeling will be too put out by that. Those two had a…" Assam paused and pursed her lips. "... difficult relationship" she concluded.

"Oh?" Sarah said. Sarah was get a little conscious that she'd said 'Oh' a few to many times, and was getting worried that Assam would start to think of her as a bit of an idiot, but she couldn't think of how to politely fish for details.

"Let's just say that Darjeeling under Earl Grey was not the Darjeeling we know today," Assam said, somewhat cryptically. Sarah just nodded in acceptance, as this wasn't really the gossip that she wanted to really know about. Especially on the ex-ex-commander's personal interactions, with the ex-commander.

So Assam continued. "We'll also be hosting Kay from Saunders, Nishi from Chi-Ha-Tan and Miho from Ooarai and many many others."

"Miho will be here?" Sarah asked. Again she felt as if she was asking stupid questions, but her leg was beginning to hurt with all the standing she was doing and it was distracting her. She could, of course, have excused herself and sat down somewhere, but she wanted to keep talking to Assam who showed no signs of moving anywhere.

"Indeed," Assam replied. "Luckily she doesn't blame St. Gloriana for what happened to her; she's far too nice to hold a grudge, anyway."

"Your cranberry juice madam!" Rosehip yelled as she appeared alongside the duo, making Sarah jump.

"Thank you, but… softly… remember?!" Assam lectured Rosehip, taking the glass from the tray.

"Yes, Miss Assam!" Rosehip said, still again she was way too loud before she scooted off. Assam rolled her eyes but said nothing.

"Could we… ah… sit down?" Sarah asked as her leg was really beginning to throb now.

"Of course; how rude of me. I'm terribly sorry for not suggesting it earlier." Assam replied, moving over to some seating on the edges away from the dance floor, as Sarah limped behind. She gratefully although not very gracefully flopped down onto one of the chairs.

"I bet Darjeeling is loving looking after you! Our wounded soldier!" Assam commented.

"Er… yeah," Sarah was keen to change the subject of this conversation. "How do you think Orange Pekoe compares to Darjeeling or Earl Grey as a commander?" She asked Assam.

"I think she's doing really well," Assam replied, sipping her drink. "It is always difficult for a new commander to take over, but the victory over Chi-Ha-Tan really boosted her confidence. It is a shame the match against Ooarai ended on such a sour note. I think Orange Pekoe has handled the situation and the rumours well, however."

"What rumours?" Sarah asked.

"There's one going around that Orange Pekoe herself gave the order to fire the late shot that injured Miho. It's not true, of course."

The sound of heels and chatter of girls grew louder. "It seems the ball will be starting," Assam said looking over her shoulder. "Do you want to know the real reason why we have this ball every year?"

"Why?"

"I'm guessing you know the saying 'keep your friends close... but your enemies closer'," Assam said with a wink, leaving the stranded Sarah in her chair as she went to welcome the guests.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks GrandadmiralThrawn rules for the review. Sarah is a strong character but lacks in the brain department sometimes. Hopefully she gets her head in the right spot sooner or later but who knows really in these rough times.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 - Now All in the Past**

* * *

**22nd March, The Manor House, Ball room, 19:20**

Sarah never understood the point of a masquerade ball. Even if she hadn't been stuck in her two distinctive plaster casts, she was sure she'd be recognised by her brown pin curls and vintage style dress, regardless of any silly mask she had on. Orange Pekoe still had orange hair; Rukuriri's - albeit now unbraided - hair was still attached to Rukuriri's masked head; so it was easy to identify who everyone was. Sarah still sat in the same chair from the earlier conversation with Assam.

Sarah just sat and watched alone, as all the other girls from the other schools talked, laughed and danced together. "Are these seats taken?" came a voice taking Sarah out of her tunnel vision. She looked over to the voice, which came from an ashen-haired girl with one arm coming up to her. It was clearly Erika Itsumi, the Kommandant of the Kuromorimine team, who was wearing a dark red dress and black mask. With her, and identifiable by the multiple cuts and grazes from shell splashes across her upper body and even an eye patch, was Miho Nishizumi in a yellow summer dress.

"No, they are free; you can take them if you want," she said pointing to the free chairs around her, thinking they were going to drag them off to some other part of the party. Erika, however drew a chair over to Miho who sat down to Sarah's left and Erika sat to Sarah's right.

"So what's wrong with you? Why aren't you up with the others?" Erika asked coldly as ever.

"Leg and arm." Sarah pointed to her leg with her good hand and then up to her bad arm, completely needlessly, as the fact they were in plaster casts indicated they were the injured bits of her.

Erika did her best not to look like an idiot not seeing the glaring pure white plaster. So she jumped immediately to the next question. "What the crap happened?" Erika asked, sounding slightly more human.

"Stairs," Sarah said flatly, pointing to her plastered leg with her one free hand. "Rosehip," she added in the same monotone, gesturing to her other arm.

"You know we could make one operational human with all our working limbs," Eikia added, nudging Sarah with the stump that remained of her left upper arm.. She placed her jug handled glass half full of '0% alcohol free beer' down on her lap.

It went quiet for a moment as all five uncovered eyes gazed over to the other girls having fun. Finally, Erika looked down at Sarah's foot, noting Sarah's flat plimsoll shoe.

"I've never really been a big fan of casual flat shoes like that. They are so low to the ground and not really very smart," Erika said, trying to start up some conversation, although instantly making it awkward.

Sarah started to blush a little, feeling as if her worst fears had come true about the shoe. "I know, I'm sorry I wanted to wear high heels but my injuries just wouldn't let me," she said, closing her eyes and bowing towards Erika.

"Oh, Miss English, you are so funny," Miho chimed in with a little smile rubbing Sarah's back to calm her. "Didn't you see what happened to me after a Boko show I was in? At that big gathering at the Sensha-do Celebration Day?" Sarah shook her head. "Well I looked like an Egyptian mummy, that was embarrassing! That seems like such a long time ago now."

This seemed to lift Sarah's mood a little. "That isn't the Nishizumi style," she quipped.

"No, not really! Mother was not pleased after receiving the phone call from the hospital. She wanted to sue the Boko company for what they did, but I ended up saying I fell off the stage."

Sarah quickly looked over to Erika and whispered something into her ear. " What's Boko?"

"It's a bear thing. Gets beat up. She likes it," Erika replied blankly, giving a small hint of a shrug as she did so. Sarah looked over to Miho. All she could think in her head was _'Miho is a masochist?'_

"So is Boko, a big thing for you then?" Sarah asked rather shyly.

"Yes he's amazing!" Miho grinned as her eye lit up. "He teaches people that however hard people beat you down, you should never give up," she added with a smile.

"I know this is a silly question but who would you say is a good Boko in this room? I mean spirit wise?" Sarah asked.

"Physically at the moment us three are the best punching bags and also Maho," Erika punted in.

Miho ignored Erika and thought for a moment. "Well everyone has been a Boko in their life or will be. You have Miss English and Miss Itsumi, so have I. Losing something you love. Be it a limb, friends or brother." The girls just sat there and pondered on that, all three of them having flashbacks to their pasts that they really didn't want to return too.

Miho looked over to where Maho was standing, with her own crutches still in hand with her thin black dress, which parted showing some of her leg. Some girls had just finished talking to her.

"I'm going to go and catch up with my sister, okay?" Miho said, rising from her seat.

Erika's gaze followed the departing Miho and then switched to Maho where her eyes lingered. Sarah suddenly understood what that gaze meant. Sarah took a quick breath; this had been just a rumour before but seeing Erika just then she knew it was true. She formulated her words carefully and as there was no one else around them, decided to ask the question.

"So you're dating Maho right? Or you want to," she asked Erika, deciding on a direct approach.

Erika's eyes snapped back to stare at Sarah. There was silence until Erika answered.

"Yes. I am," she said firmly, after what seemed to be an inner struggle.

"Good, I'm happy for you," Sarah added with a light nudge. "You too really do suit each other. The two of you are like Ying and Yang. Opposites that attracted." Sarah tried to reassure Erika that she had no problem with her and Maho being a couple. "I don't think you should be ashamed of your feelings and what they mean to you. My… if I had a partner I would want the same feeling of love and compassion as you two so definitely have."

"What made you the expert in the affairs of the heart all of a sudden?" Erika asked, somewhat coldly.

"My Boko side. I lost things that I loved; things that were close to my heart. I know what hurts it and I'm still trying to find ways to fix it. Love is the only key Erika. But it's a two sided blade. That's why it hurts so much to lose someone you loved dearly... like I did."

"Ah..." Erika blushed awkwardly. "I see. Of course. I felt the same way when I though Maho was dead," she confessed to Sarah. "I am sorry. I never knew James but I have heard a lot about him since."

"He was just a stupid person that's all he will ever be!" Sarah said quickly with a quaver in her voice. She knew she shouldn't have brought this up and knew it was about to bite her in the arse and give her more questions that she had to answer. But was she right with her analogy? Did she really love Darjeeling, or was it that she just wanted to please her, as a thank you for saving her. She didn't know for sure; she was lost in her own mind.

"Well… um, is all well here at St. Gloriana's?" Erika asked.

Sarah was aware that Erika, ever the tactician, was probably fishing for useful information, but she was glad at the chance to change the subject. She put thoughts of James out of her mind and dabbled her wet eyes with a tissue before her tears completely ruined her make-up.

"Why wouldn't they be?" she asked warily.

Erika shrugged. "It's always difficult when a new commander takes over. I found that to be the case, and Orange Pekoe is so young. I like her, of course, but has she ever commanded a team before?"

"I don't think she likes me…" Sarah mumbled, which didn't answer Erika's question.

"Oh? Why not?" Erika fished.

"Me and Darjeeling…" Sarah covered her mouth with good hand, those were some of the worst words she could have used. She was hoping the world would suck her up and end it all.

Erika's eyes widened. "You're not!?" she asked.

"We're just friends!" Sarah blurted out. "I'm just living with her while these injuries heal."

"I see," Erika said, sounding like she understood a lot more than what Sarah had said. "So what's that got to do with Orange Pekoe?"

Finally finding a sympathetic ear for her conspiracy theories, it all came pouring out of Sarah in a tearful torrent. The jealousy that she imagined Orange Pekoe was feeling; the sabotaged stairs; the inevitability of the 'accident' with Rosehip.

Erika listened attentively, nodding at intervals. Finally she spoke up.

"Maho was incensed when that final shell hit Miho's tank. And rightly so! Miho was lucky… she could have been completely blinded or even killed. The shot came from Orange Pekoe's tank, and there are rumours that Orange Pekoe herself gave the order to fire."

"Why would she do that?" Sarah said defensively, protecting the honour of her school rather than Orange Pekoe.

"Despite what happened to Anglerfish team, Ooarai is still a force to be reckoned with, and Miho is the powerhouse behind it. With her out of the way, all of a sudden this tournament becomes easier for the other teams," Erika explained. "Some are saying the Orange Pekoe's style is not like her predecessor's. Some are saying that she'll do anything to win."

Sarah barely had time to contemplate this before Erika grabbed hold of her plastered arm, making her wince.

"This reminds me. Shiho Nishizumi wants me to remind you that you still have a favour indebted to you. I think another girl used hers up already. Jasmine or something was her name. Do you know of her?"

Sarah nodded. "Yeah… she was my gunner and friend. What did she use her wish on?"

"She wanted to use the Kuromorimine's world renowned target range in January. She got to fire a lot of shells in a lot of different tanks. It helps that she's a good shot as well," Erika explained. Sarah was a little saddened that Jasmine didn't even tell her this story; it kind of put into perspective how wide the rift between her and her crew had now become.

"Look! There she is!" Erika was staring at a distinctive short figure with braided orange hair. "Why's she leaving the party?"

It was true; Orange Pekoe seemed to be heading for the exit.

"Come on English, let's see where she's going!" Erika said, rising from her seat.

"But...!"

"You can walk on that cast thing, can't you!?" Erika snapped.

"Not for too long," Sarah protested.

Erika helped Sarah up and they made their way after Orange Pekoe, trying their best not to be noticed. Sarah struggled to keep up with Erika, encumbered as she was with one straight and heavy leg that she couldn't bend.

Orange Pekoe did indeed leave the ballroom and the duo followed her, entering the corridor which was empty of anyone other than Orange Pekoe at the far end.

Sarah swung her casted leg and the heel underneath it hit the marble floor with a dull 'thunk'.

"Shh!" Erika hissed at her. "Walk on the carpet with that damned thing!" Erika indicated the plush full red carpet that ran down the centre of the corridor. Sarah sheepishly moved over and the two of them continued their pursuit.

They rounded the corner just in time to see Orange Pekoe turn left into a smaller corridor. Fortunately for the pursuers, Orange Pekoe was wearing high heels and didn't seem very sure of herself in them. She probably hadn't worn them much before as so was taking very small steps and consequently not travelling very fast.

Erika stalked and Sarah limped along the main corridor until they could peer around the corner where Orange Pekoe had gone. It was a smaller passage with a bare wooden floor and some very faint light from the wall mounted lights. The corridor had a ninety degree bend to the left half way along it and Orange Pekoe was now out of sight.

Erika stopped dead in her tracks, causing the hobbling Sarah to nearly collide with her.

"Tsk!" Erika hissed again. "She'll hear us on this floor. I'll have to go alone; you make too much noise," she told Sarah bluntly but truthfully.

Erika slipped off her heels and thrust them at Sarah. "Hold these " she instructed. She then scampered off down the corridor in her bare feet.

Erika had nearly reached the bend in the corridor when she left out a howl and collapsed to the floor. Shocked, Sarah immediately tried to rush to her colleague's aid. She did the strangest run she'd ever done in her life, which consisted of one stride with her plastered leg followed by two hops on her good foot, repeated until she reached Erika.

By the time Sarah reached her, Erika was sat up and swearing profusely while rubbing her foot with her single hand. Sarah saw Erika pluck some from her foot and hurl it from her in rage.

"What… happened!?" Sarah gasped as she half crouched and half fell beside Erika.

"I stepped on a pin!" Erika yelled, still rubbing her foot.

"A pin?" Sarah asked blankly.

"You know, a drawing pin; a thumb tack!" Erika raved. "Orange Pekoe must have known she was being followed and must have dropped it! Grr!"

Erika slammed her single fist onto the floor in anger at having been outsmarted and having lost her quarry.

"Well, we won't find her now, we'd better head back to the ball before we're missed" Erika fumed, getting to her feet. "Are you alright?" she asked, looking down at Sarah who had tears running down her cheeks.

"My… knee…" Sarah mumbled. That crazy run had certainly done it no favours and her leg was now throbbing mercilessly.

Slowly the injured girls made their way back along the corridor with Erika supporting Sarah, who grimaced every time she took weight on her injured leg. Erika, who only had a slight limp, picked up her shoes from where Sarah had dropped them when she tried to run, and slipped them back on so nothing would look unusual.

Once back in the ballroom, Erika was able to dump Sarah on Rosehip, instructing the pink-haired girl to get a chair for Sarah.

"Let me go and make some enquiries. We'll speak later," Erika said curtly to Sarah before stalking off just as Rosehip came back with the chair.

"Ladies. Ladies. The main guest has arrived," Rukuriri said into a microphone at the head of the ballroom. The ballroom fell silent. The oak doors opened wide to their fullest extent. And there she was Darjeeling, in the purest of blue dresses somewhat resembling a thin, wedding dress. A half white mask with diamonds surrounded her eyes. Sarah just looked at her from her chair, her mouth hanging open. She could tell that Darjeeling's body was different, the waist was thinner than usual, and very noticeably her front chest area looked a lot bigger with fair bit of skin showing. All the girls were very impressed as they all gathered around her touching the dress and saying how amazing she looked. Kay seemed very keen, touching Darjeeling on her upper arm and waist and making Sarah more than a little jealous.

Rosehip ran around with a silver tray full of champagne flutes filled to the brim with the bubbly liquid to each of the other girls. Rosehip came over with the last of the glasses, but Sarah just shook her head. "Could you get me what Assam had?" she asked in a small voice. Rosehip nodded and ran off.

"Ladies. Thank you all for coming. Enjoy the night and let's look forward to the future," Darjeeling said as she raised her glass. "To the future!"

"To the future!" came from the chorus around the ballroom. Some people after their sip then casually carried on talking to Darjeeling. Others made some disgusted faces, not being a fan of the alcoholic beverage.

"Your cranberry juice, madam!" Rosehip shrilled in Sarah's ear as she held out a large tumbler with both hands extended covering both sides of the glass.

"Ah! Oh, thanks," Sarah said, after her initial shock. She took the glass in one hand and had a sip. All the liquid that went in her mouth then went back into the glass. "Why is there vodka in here?" she coughed.

"This is Assam's usual drink?" Rosehip responded back, sounding confused.

"I can't drink alcohol as I'm on pills!" Sarah said through gritted teeth.

"What, you're pregnant?" Rosehip asked, wide-eyed.

Sarah just looked at Rosehip rather dumbfounded. Not wanting to go through the ins and outs of the creations of life, she shoved the glass back into Rosehip's hands. "I'll just have some water. Not an Assam special or an Orange Pekoe G&T. Just plain old H2O," she instructed. Rosehip then scurried off.

Sarah wanted nothing more than to leave the ball, go back to her rooms and rest her aching leg, but she knew she couldn't. This was Darjeeling's leaving ball and Darjeeling would be expecting her to stay to the very end. Putting on a brave face, she tried to ignore the mounting pain in her knee and sat on her own.

"Dinner will be served now so ladies if you can take a seat at a table," Orange Pekoe said magically appearing at the head table as she grasped some pieces of paper in one of her hands.

Rosehip reappeared like a pink-haired phantom and lent a hand to lift Sarah to her feet. She then helped Sarah to a nearly empty table at the back of the ballroom.

"I'll be back soon - I have to give out the special meals out. Who knew Carpaccio was a vegetarian?!" she said with a shrug as she dashed off towards an open door. Seconds later she was out again with a trolley of special dinners, as she rolled towards the girls on her list and passed out their dietary requirement meals. Last on her list was Kay. "Here you go. Your special roast dinner," Rosehip added with a smile passing it over to Kay.

"Thanks," Kay answered back.

"You're still on that silly gluten-free diet then?" Naomi added looking down at Kay's plate.

"Of course. Gluten makes the body sluggish and decreases the energy the body can store. I read it in a lifestyle magazine so it has to be true," Kay said inspecting the roast chicken with all the trimmings.

"You have only been doing this diet for a week. Have you seen any difference yet?" Alisa probed.

"Yes. One significant other has said there has been more energy shown," Kay smiled with a wink. Alisa rolled her eyes, wishing that her blushes could disappear.

Rosehip pushed open the door and rolled her trolley back into what Sarah had guessed was the kitchen. Seconds later Rosehip returned and sat down next to Sarah. "That's me done as a maid! I can join the party now. Dinner time!" Rosehip said holding her knife and fork in fists on the table. Trolley after trolley came out from the kitchen and the rest of the roast chicken meals were served to the other girls. Finally, Sarah and Rosehip got their meals. A fine cut of chicken breast with a fair bit of seasoning, the trimmings of roast potatoes, mashed potato carrots, string beans and broccoli. Lastly, a small jug of gravy was put on the table, which Rosehip seized and drenched her plate.

"Let's eat then," Rosehip added and began to shovel in the food. Sarah just ate taking her time not wishing to miss any flavours.

"Done!" came the voice from next to her.

Sarah looked at Rosehip's plate; even the gravy had been licked off.

"It's not a race Rosehip," she scolded.

"Sorry, I was hungry," was the cheery reply.

Sarah rolled her eyes and continued as if she hadn't seen what Rosehip had just done. Rosehip began to tap Sarah's shoulder. "Um, that empty seat on the head table," She said pointing to the vacant seat next to Rukuriri. "You're meant to be there. Let me just…" Rosehip stood to and moved behind Sarah to lift her up.

Aware that moving now would obviously make a scene, Sarah didn't want to show up Darjeeling. "No. Rosehip I am staying here," Sarah said rather forcefully. Rosehip shrugged and moved back to her seat and didn't say anything.

The sound of fine dining slowed and the windows began to show the last rays of sunlight as the sun dipped below the horizon of the dark blue sea, which heralded the end of one era and the start of another.

Rukuriri stood up and tapped a spoon on a glass to call for silence. "Miss Darjeeling, the floor is yours," Rukuriri said, sitting down again to allow Darjeeling to speak.

Darjeeling stood from her grand chair. "Thank you for all coming. This night could never be possible without all my friends and colleagues here but as if you know me well I'm going to say something that will sound familiar to you. Have you heard this saying? 'Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail'. I did prepare, but it seems I have still failed, as the speech I wrote has sadly gone missing. I remember most of it, however, so it should be alright!" she said with a little slur in her words but only a minor amount. A few grins became fixed to various faces. Only Rosehip looked like she was truly enjoying herself, and that's because she was playing on her phone which was held under the table so no one could see.

Darjeeling looked down at the new commander of St. Gloriana Girls' College Sensha-do Team.

"Miss Orange Pekoe, have you heard this saying? 'When you're going through Hell… keep going.' If you want to achieve greatness learn this saying well. The world will fight against you every step of the way until the bitter end. But nothing will stop you, or will it?" Darjeeling said, sounding slightly muddled. She then sat and took a large swig of champagne and smiled towards Orange Pekoe.

"Is that it?" Orange Pekoe asked in a hushed whisper.

"I forgot the rest, so hopefully you remembered yours better," Darjeeling replied in the same tone, with a slightly woozy smile on her face.

Orange Pekoe stood, "Ladies, I'm so honoured that you came today…" she said, eyes glued to the paper in her hands. "... Darjeeling has been our commander for such a long time. She has nurtured a great many Sensha-do stars and seen them bloom. And I hope to follow in these large steps. As some would say, I'm standing on the shoulders of a giant, which I do agree with. I will do my best for St. Gloriana, and I wish for all the ladies here to raise their glasses in a toast for a happy and successful future." Orange Pekoe lifted her flute. "To Darjeeling."

"To Darjeeling," was the response from around the room.

"Yay! Darjeeling!" Rosehip said, although thankfully not loud enough to carry to the top table.

Orange put her papers down and took a quick look around the room. "So dessert is apple crumble and custard. It's a British traditional meal, I hope you enjoy it. Afterwards, we will hopefully have some fun dancing till the sun rises!" she added with a slightly nervous laugh. There were a few titters and a smattering of applause as she concluded. She sat down and the plates were taken away by the waiters.

There were a lot of mutters around the tables. Even Sarah could pick up on some of them. "Well wasn't that speech rubbish." "She wasn't very confident."

Dessert was served soon after and that was quickly devoured. Darjeeling walked over to the middle of the ballroom and clapped her hands, and the lights were dimmed and pop music started playing. Darjeeling began to strut her stuff on the dancefloor in marked contrast to the elegant lady that most of the guests were used to seeing. Nonetheless, inspired by Darjeeling, other girls joined her and began to dance, with a wide variety of amazing and pitiful dancing ensuing. But if they were having fun then Darjeeling was happy.

Sarah just elected to stay and watch from her seat. The night went on and on, as guests slowly but surely departed from the party. Anchovy had proved to be a rather a funny lady whilst a little tipsy. At one point she had her arm around Orange Pekoe saying. "You learnt from us! You did operation Maconini … Maco...roni… to Ooarai. So we are strong! Not weak! We are ANZIO! We will beat you!" She had finally left by about two in the morning, tunelessly singing some Italian opera with Pepperoni.

By then only Darjeeling, Sarah, Kay and her entourage were left. Sarah was still amazed that Darjeeling was still able to stand upright, seeing as she'd been knocking back champagne all night long. Kay stumbled her way over to Darjeeling. "Tonight was amazing! Will you come to my leaving party?" she said. She looked pale and sweating slightly, which Sarah put down to the vigorous jives she had been dancing after eating a full roast dinner.

"Yes, yes of course!" Darjeeling replied. Kay smiled as the two exchanged kisses on each other's cheeks.

"Sorry, but I must go," Kay said, placing her hand on her stomach. Darjeeling gave a smile and nod and the three Saunders girls left.

Sarah then got herself up and moved towards Darjeeling. "Okay, let's go," she said taking her arm. She could smell the amount of alcohol Darjeeling had drunk and to say it was large was a little bit of an understatement. Darjeeling had a beaming smile across her face but didn't seem to be focusing on much. Sarah had to lead her out to the car, which wasn't an easy feat, considering the state of both of them.

After a car journey back to the flat, Sarah guided her drunken girlfriend to the bedroom. "You're sleeping here tonight, I'll sleep on the sofa." Darjeeling fell back onto the bed, grabbing hold of Sarah's hand as she fell, causing Sarah to overbalance and flop down too so she now lay beside and slightly on top of Darjeeling.

"You're not going anywhere tonight," the now ex-commander grinned.

"Darjeeling, not tonight," Sarah muttered, but Darjeeling rolled on top of Sarah, pinning her to the bed. "Hey! That hurts Darjeeling! Get off me please…"

"For me on my special night?" Darjeeling cooed as she pressed down a little harder, smothering Sarah somewhat as she tried to kiss Sarah's lips and neck.

"Oh, oh alright..." Sarah said very reluctantly, resigning herself to her fate and biting her lip in the process.

* * *

**25th March, St. Gloriana Sensha-do Common Room. 17:23**

The St. Gloriana girls celebrated the win over Anzio, which had taken place earlier that day and was a good boost for morale. The most exciting thing had been seeing the flag tank CV-33 doing a cartwheel to get behind Orange Pekoe's Churchill, only to realise that the machine gun bullets would just bounce off the back of the Churchill.

Rukuriri had a small group of girls from crews surrounding her and they all seemed to be in fits of laughter. Rukuriri appeared to be acting out some sort of comedy sketch, with impressions of the various protagonists, who were known as Sensha-do personalities. It all seemed to be very light-hearted and good-natured. Rukuriri was even parodying her own voice, accentuating the lisp that she was normally able to disguise. Only on rare occasions would her control slip and the odd word would slip out wrong. In her self-effacing send up of herself, however, she laid it on strong. "Wosehip! That is tweason! Webbellion even!" Her audience howled with laughter. Rukuriri voice changed doing an impression of Orange Pekoe to a T. "In our next match we will have a teapot as our second vice commander. Rukuriri is very lonely being the only in match, vice commander at the moment." Orange Pekoe also laughed which was a rare sight.

Rukuriri reverted back to her normal voice lifting her teacup. "And three cheers for player of the match - Green Gunpowder! Again a stellar performance today and hopefully many successful future matches to come! Hip hip!"

"Hurray!" all the crowd cheered, while Green Gunpowder lapped up the praise.

Sarah again sat alone in a corner of the common room making notes on how the battle had gone and what still needed improving, as things were far from perfect. She checked the other results on her laptop. Pravda had smashed Saunders, 5 - 0. Even Sarah didn't expect this. She clicked on the small report made by the JSF. The headline read 'Ill Kay costs Saunders as Pravda dominate'. She skimmed the article until she got to something that caught her eye. 'Saunders team doctor says Kay was absent due to food poisoning'. Sarah smiled to herself. _'Due to excess alcohol from someone's leaving dinner, more like!'_ she thought. She recalled how grim Kay had looked when she left Darjeeling's farewell ball. Although, Sarah mused, could a hangover really last three days?!

Sarah looked down at the fixture list, Saunder's would be playing them next.

* * *

**1st April, Yokohama city. 10:10**

The carrier ship had finally arrived in the deep port tranquil waters of Yokohama port, the home port of St Gloriana Girls' College. Darjeeling, wearing a summer dress with a large straw hat with a bright ribbon, walked down the gangway pushing Sarah along in her wheelchair, of course.

"I still can't believe you're wearing summer clothes in spring? What are people going to think?" Sarah said again as this argument just never seemed to end from the apartment all the way to gangway.

"Well, do you know this saying? 'Fashion is about dressing according to what's fashionable. Style is more about being yourself' and compared to what you're wearing..." She looked down at Sarah's shorts and St Glorina P.E shirt. "You cannot really judge."

"I dress for comfort, you on the other hand dress for laughs," Sarah returned.

"I wonder how cold the water is down there? It would be a real shame if you fell in," Darjeeling said with a devilish grin on her face, as they reached the end of the gangway now on the solid port ground. Darjeeling wheeled her around to face the sapphire waters below.

"You wouldn't dare..."

Darjeeling moved down to Sarah's ear so her hat was covering both their faces. "Do you really want to find out?"

Sarah raised her finger and opened her mouth, but she caught sight of at Darjeeling's cunning smile that usually heralded that something would happen if she spoke. "I best shut up then."

"Good answer. Time to go shopping!" Darjeeling chirped as she rolled the wheelchair towards the glass-covered metropolis.

They headed to one large shop sticking out from the rest with its modern glass wall exterior and a Crusader in the inside on a pristine white stone floor.

"I love this dealership so much! T there is no better place to get tanks," Darjeeling said rolling the chair towards the main glass door which automatically slid open.

"T&S?" Sarah queried.

"Tanks and Shells. They are very prestigious. They have been supplying St Gloriana for years. They were one of the first companies to sell built-in 'carbon armour mark three' which was lighter and longer-lasting than the old models. They put it into all of their Sensha-do tanks as standard," Darjeeling explained like a true tank nerd.

"I see," Sarah said.

As she watched Darjeeling had a nerdgasm. "Yes, this place is definitely my favourite one! They have …" Darjeeling stopped and calmed herself down as her cheeks were getting rather red and flustered. "You'll see," she added with a kiss on Sarah's forehead.

As they entered the establishment a man in a grey suit white shirt without a tie walked over to the two of them. "Ah, Miss Darjeeling, are we here to make a purchase today?" he asked smoothly.

"Well, actually yes we are, but it's my friend here who wishes to purchase a tank of her own. I'm just here to give a guiding hand," Darjeeling said, giving a courteous smile.

"Oh really, how interesting," the salesman replied, giving Sarah's battered appearance only a hint of a sideways glance. "You know where to go. Give me a call when you need me," he responded, gesturing to the corner of the room. An opaque rounded glass dome thing was there, which Sarah had no idea what it was. Darjeeling wheeled Sarah over to the area and as they walked closer the dome split opened. Darjeeling moved in with Sarah until they were both inside. The interior was lit with a creamy glow, and Sarah imagined being inside a cloud. The whole egg-shaped thing began to move down slowly, and after about 20 seconds of travel, it stopped and opened. The sight that met Sarah's eyes was something she never thought was possible. Row after row of tanks met her eyes. Churchills with every model, T-34s, Shermans, everything imaginable seemed to be in this huge white underground area.

"So, let's go shopping!" Darjeeling said like a kid in a candy store. She began to wheel Sarah down the first of many long lines of metal monsters.

"How about this?" she said, stopping if front of an obvious candidate. "A Cromwell, but your very own one?" Darjeeling asked pointing to the boxed shape of the Cromwell in front of them.

"Well, it's always an option, but I want something a little more punchy," Sarah said hesitantly.

"Fine," Darjeeling sighed, pushing Sarah along the smooth white floor to some more parked tanks.

"It has to be this then," Darjeeling said as she parked Sarah in front of a rather familiar tank. "77mm gun; basically a 17 pounder. Good armour and speed is still respectable." Sarah nodded as she considered.

"The Comet is an excellent and perfect match for your type of Sensha-do," Darjeeling went on. "Shall I check the interior?"

Without waiting for an answer from Sarah she climbed up onto the front part of the hull of the tank, and in doing so gave Sarah a quick and unexpected view of her undergarment.

_'Navy blue today. Interesting!' _Sarah internally remarked to herself.

Sarah took her eyes off Darjeeling, who had by this time stood by the turret and gazed into the glistening tank.

"Looks pretty good from what I can see," Darjeeling said, turning back to face Sarah.

It had to be; it was the one and only logical choice… but something began to tug at Sarah's heartstrings. "I can't. Even though this was the first tank I ever sat in, fired… I just can't. This was one of James's tanks and his favourite. I'm not following in his footsteps Darjeeling."

Darjeeling looked at the turret, then back to Sarah. She could see and understand Sarah's point - just about. "But, just keep it in mind. It's a very good vehicle; there is a reason why James loved it," Darjeeling urged. She hopped down and moved Sarah again along the promenade of tanks.

"Look that one! That one!" Sarah pointed out ecstatically. Darjeeling following the directions of her navigator was shocked and rather disapproving, even before Sarah opened her traitorous mouth. "75mm high-velocity gun; good armour! And the Brits did use one during World War Two. The 4th Coldstream Guards used it," Sarah pointed out to back up her case.

"I am aware of that," Darjeeling said coldly, eyeing the Panther that Sarah was enthusing about. "And how did Cuckoo end, hmm?" Darjeeling asked looking down onto Sarah's head, as Sarah looked up to her instinctively, knowing her angry glare was upon her.

"Er… five months it lasted..." she replied hesitantly.

"As the fuel pump broke, and the same would happen at St. Gloriana. We wouldn't be able to fix it except at great cost and I don't think the Governors would help with the upkeep of a _foreign_ tank. Especially a Panther tank"

"But..." Sarah tried to protest.

"Nope - it's not going to happen and don't think about arguing with me," Darjeeling said flatly as she moved Sarah away from the winter coloured Panther.

They turned down another row of steel behemoths and began to peruse those.

"Black Prince?" Darjeeling asked.

"Too slow."

"There. A Churchill AVRE," Darjeeling pointed out the heavy 'bunker-busting' tank with its stubby spigot mortar.

"I don't think that's any better," Sarah sighed.

"Oh there; there's a Tortoise!" Darjeeling squeaked with glee.

"I think that might be a little out of my price range and again I want to be able to move Darjeeling," Sarah countered.

"Have you heard this saying: 'slow and steady wins the race'?" Darjeeling replied.

"Yes!" Sarah said, rolling her eyes at the years-old saying "But I want to have a tank with speed that will be measured with the use of a timer, not a calendar!" she quipped.

"Hmph!" Darjeeling replied, although conceded that Sarah had a point.

They continued to walk along silent rows of the vehicles. A Mk 1 Centurion presented itself, coated in pure black with a polish on top, making it sparkle as both girls looked at it, mouths watering.

"When we fought the University All Stars, this was the only thing I was scared of. The T-28 was nothing compared to this," Darjeeling said, rubbing her hand on the front plate of the tank.

"Speaking of that, do you think Green Gunpowder is on par or better than Alice Shimada?" Sarah asked, curious to hear what Darjeeling thought of that upstart.

"She is very skilled, she has huge potential but as C.S Lewis put it 'A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you'. That's what I think but it's Orange Pekoe's decision to use her or not; not mine any more."

"She is talented for sure but she needs to learn that it's a team sport, not an individual sport," Sarah said back.

Darjeeling looked at a little plaque near the front of the tank which contained a little info on the history of the Centurion and other nuggets of information - including the all important price.

"Well then if a Tortoise is out of your price range… then a Centurion is definitely out of your reach then," Darjeeling sadly concluded.

"How much?" Sarah asked, her curiosity piqued.

"For what you need, considering ammunition, spares etc… a lot! This, Pershings and IS-3s are some of the most expensive tanks," Darjeeling informed her.

"Darjeeling, just tell me please?" Sarah begged. Darjeeling lent in and whispered the number in Sarah's highly anticipating ear.

"Okaaaay! Let's move on then!" Sarah quickly instructed, shocked by the price. Darjeeling chuckled and moved Sarah's wheelchair forward. Sarah turned as she moved away, keeping her eyes on the Centurion. "One day, my beauty, one day," she muttered to herself, giving the tank a blown kiss as they departed.

The whole thing seemed to be hopeless; nothing seemed to be right. Valiants, Cruisers, Crusaders, Sentinels.

"Okay, it seems this was a waste of time. The Cromwell it is then…" Sarah said, a little disheartened. She knew the Cromwell, as good as it was, wasn't her overall tank of choice.

As they rounded one of the Matildas to another row, Sarah's eyes fell upon another steel beast. Her heart leapt, and she knew it had to be. "That! That's it!" she gasped, pointing with the arm that she was able to straighten and leaning far forward in her seat.

"That's quite a strange choice, but I see why you would want it. I suppose it does have a lot going for it," Darjeeling nodded in agreement. "It seems very 'you'. Hmm… yes… I think you've found your tank!"

* * *

**The Spring League Tournament: Round 3 results**

Kuromorimine Girls' Academy 5-v-0 Chi-Ha-Tan Academy

Saunders University High School 0-v-5 Pravda Girls' High School

Anzio Girls' High School 2-v-5 St. Gloriana Girls' College

Ooarai Girls' Academy 5-v-0 BC Freedom High School

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 3**

1st Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 13

Joint 2nd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 12

Joint 2nd Pravda Girls' High School - 12

4th St. Gloriana Girls' College - 10

Joint 5th Saunders University High School - 7

Joint 5th BC Freedom High School - 7

7th Anzio Girls' High School - 4

8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 0


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 - A new mantel passed**

* * *

**6th April - JSF battlefield, 11:19**

Sarah and Darjeeling had made their way up to the grandstand, to watch the Saunders vs St. Gloriana match. They both made themselves comfortable, but Sarah could feel thousands of eyes on her and Darjeeling, all coming from the Saunders supporters. Many believed a rumour going around that St. Gloriana had purposely poisoned Kay. It didn't help that Kay was still not one hundred percent, so she would not be participating in the match.

The battlefield was rather different. For one it was very, very small; maybe about three square miles at most. The other oddity was it was based on a Normandy beach during D-day. A town was on the beachfront, with open countryside with thick hedgerows and sunken roads. Sarah had only seen one other match that had a beach and it was the Ooarai and Chi-Ha-Tan vs St. Gloriana and Pravda match. The plan was simple, the Infantry tanks would take the town and the Chindits would go into the countryside and pincer the Saunders tanks moving into the town. Five points were the goal today; Sarah was confident; she just hoped her confidence transcended to the battlefield.

There was an added pressure on this match as well, as Pravda had been handed an automatic five point win over Anzio, this battle was a must-win now if St. Gloriana were to keep in contention of winning the league. Anzio, it turned out, had forfeited their match to take part in filming for a pasta commercial of all things. The word on the grapevine was that the school had been unexpectedly approached with a very lucrative offer, but the date had clashed with the match. Unfortunately, Anzio needed the money and hadn't been in a position to refuse, so Pravda became the automatic victors of that round.

* * *

**6th April - JSF battlefield, 12:00**

The match had begun with a white poof of smoke and the Chindits shooting off into the thick hedgerows, as the lumbering infantry tanks rolled towards the town.

"Ladies - you know the plan. Lets get this done." Orange Pekoe said rather calmly, and the three Matildas advanced in an arrowhead formation, with the Churchill tank trundling slowly behind.

"Rosehip - any targets so far?" Orange Pekoe asked.

"No, nothing," Rosehip replied, her head sticking out of the hatch as wind plus the odd bug crashed into her face.

"Good. Continue to point A then on my signal advanced to point B," Orange Pekoe said as she neared the town with her escorts. _'We have the speed advantage - use it,'_ was the sentence that kept rebounding around Orange Pekoe's head.

* * *

**6th April - JSF battlefield, 12:12**

The four Chindits tanks thundered their way through the countryside, the small town still in sight "Tanks!" the radio shrieked. "Four stationary Sherman Jumbos."

Rosehips Crusader came to a stop on a sunken road with hedges along the side, giving Rosehips Crusader some good cover. She jumped out of the hatch, and stood on top of the turret, on her tiptoes just just being able to peek over the hedge. She could see four Jumbos in the field in front of her sitting still in a straight line about 400 meters away. It seemed they had not spotted the Crusader as none of the turrets had turned to face Rosehip's direction.

She bent down and put her hand into the turret, taking out the microphone. "Chindits get to my location of A13. Be quiet, we have dinner waiting for us."

Rather suddenly the Cromwell slid into view beside Rosehip's Crusader. Green Gunpowder as per normal had her head out and was scanning for targets. Green Gunpowder looked over to Rosehip still standing on the turret top. "Four tanks. In a line facing slightly west of us," she mouthed and mimed with her hands. Green Gunpowder gave a nod of understanding. The other two Crusaders joined Rosehip's other side and she repeated the same message.

"Status report Chindits," Orange Pekoe asked.

"Four Jumbos ahead of us. Looks like they may push into the town from your eastern flank. We will destroy them."

"Chindits fallback you can't take them on," Orange Pekoe said back with her Churchill coming to a stop in the seaside town, in a strong defensive position. "The area is too well defended. This could be an ambush."

"Miss Orange Pekoe we have the surprise and speed advantage, give us a chance" Rosehip begged, the Jumbos being slow lumbering beasts, an easy target for the fast and nimble Chindit tanks, and Rosehip knew this. But Orange Pekoe felt that something was wrong; it seemed too easy.

"No, fallback, that's an order Rosehip" Orange Pekoe said resolutely.

Rosehip looked out of the turret towards the Jumbos. She placed her hand into the turret of the Crusader and took out a teacup, taking a quick and large gulp of her tea. She picked up the microphone pressing the speak button. "Chindits! Attack their flank. Hit their sides and rears hard!" she said with much conviction, throwing her teacup to the ground where it smashed as it landed on the sunken road. The tanks sprang into action, charging through the large bushes in front of them with Green Gunpowder's Cromwell leading the way. All four Shermans moved into line abreast with calm and well-drilled order. The turrets turned to what must have been their first target, the Cromwell. All 75mm shells fired one after another, the first two shells closed in.

"Hard right." Gunpowder yelled, and the tank veered as the shells flew by crashing into the trampled bushes behind. The violent action was, however, the perfect for following shells, as they crashed into the Cromwell's side and turret and the white flag raised.

"Shit! We are out! Go get them Rosehip!" Gunpowder said bashing the inside of the turret with her fist at her annoyance for being the first out.

The Shermans turrets turned again and fired, hitting and knocking out Cramberry's Crusader with the first shell.

"Vanilla go left, I'll take right!" Rosehip ordered with both tanks then splitting.

The Chindits closed in ever closer to their targets only 10 seconds away, The Sherman's split their aims two on Vanilla the other on Rosehip. Vanilla was taken out at close range only 10 meters away from the line of Jumbos.

Orange Pekoe listened with one ear on the battle outside the town from the top of the commander's hatch of her Churchill, with the other ear on the radio transmissions. "Rosehip! Fallback now!"

"No!" Rosehip replied, as her Crusader weaved, missing the two incoming shells and getting to the side of a Jumbo at the end of the line. This was her chance to get revenge. The Jumbo began to turn its turret and hull to present its thick frontal armour and also allow the other Jumbos line of sight on this advancing grey predator.

The Sherman, however, was still too slow and sluggish. The side armour was ready for the six pounder shell to slam against it. "Fire…" _Bang _The white flag appeared over the Crusader. "What the…" Rosehip opened her hatch and looked down at the hull front where the impact had come from. She drew a line with her finger from the shell hit forward. Sticking out of a bush was a long gun with a rounded muzzle brake.

"We are four tanks down meaning we have given up two points in the table and our eastern flank is now exposed," Rukuriri stated, looking at her map she had placed down on top of her Matildas turret roof.

"Rukuriri that is noted," Orange Pekoe said, rubbing her chin. "The odds of winning this battle with all five points were unbelievably small. We will destroy their flag tank. It's the only course of victory. Rukuriri, take Nirgili and make sure they can't get behind Peach and I. Also, have the engines turned off. We defend hard until there is an opening. Then we will advance and take out the flag tank."

"So the Chindits are eliminated?!" Alisa asked over the radio with her tanks stationed just on the outskirts of the seaside town.

"I can confirm four tanks used by the Chindit force have been destroyed" came the voice ending in a bubblegum pop. "I wasn't even really needed for support, the girls took down the Cromwell with ease and the rest fell like dominos. I wanted to fire the gun really and seemed to hit the last one. Would you like me to join you Alisa or stick on the hook force?"

"Continue with hook force. We will place pressure on the town as that's where they must be with their flag tank. Five points is a must now. We will win this for Kay and to teach those cheating St Gloriana's girls and their vile commander Orange Pekoe a humiliating lesson," Alisa looked around at the entrance of the town ahead of her. "Evil Temptation and Hell's Kitchen, advance ahead of me, we will just pin them down. Understood?"

"Yes commander Alisa", "Understood commander," both tank commanders replied back. With both tanks creating a line of three Easy Eights, they rolled into the bricked fortresses town.

The infantry tanks of St Gloriana remained quiet, their engines off to make any chance of being found by use of sound to be diminished but having the opposite effect of helping them to hear any Saunders tanks approaching into their trap.

"I can hear tanks moving from the west, do you concur Rukuriri?" Orange Pekoe asked, listening intensity standing on top of her Churchill, with one of the entrances to the town ahead of her position covered in large debris and shell craters.

"I agree Miss Orange Pekoe, four Sherman Jumbos were spotted with the force attacking the Chindits. But none of those were the flag tank. So there is a possibility one of these tanks coming in is their flag tank."

"Tanks! Three entering west in entrance two, Shermans with 76mm AT guns. I can confirm one is the flag tank, one is the flag tank" Orange Pekoe's escorting Matilda called out down another of the entrances only a street away from Orange Pekoe's Churchill.

"Place down suppressive fire to slow their advance, I will be offering support," replied Orange Pekoe climbing down into the Churchill. The Matilda opened up with its puny two-pounder gun.

"Tank ahead or tanks I cannot verify a number." The shell hit and bounced clean off the lead Sherman, as if it were a bug off a windscreen.

"Fireback then, don't let them get away," Alisa called from the rear of the convoy.

The lead Sherman fired in the direction of the Matilda, only hitting some of the large pile of building debris, with brick and wood splinters flying in all directions. The only positive of such a small gun was the insanely fast reload, as shell after shell crashed into the lead Sherman. Finally, enough lead had hit the fan, as a shell hit the turret ring locking the turret in place.

"Hell's Kitchen here. Our tank is damaged and we cannot turn the turret. Can we fall back?" came the nervous voice of the tank's commander. The lone Matilda start firing at the next target with the same ferocity.

"Yes, fall back, it seems they have set us up an ambush. They must have more tanks here that we can't see firing at us. We will flank them on the beach," Alisa called back.

The radio was rather silenced with the sound of metal on metal singing as they crashed into one another. "Understood Alisa but ..."

"No buts, we do this for Kay!"

The Shermans moved back, setting off a smokescreen to cover the entrance guarded by the lone Matilda.

"Miss Orange Pekoe the column is falling back behind a smokescreen. Your orders?"

"Hold your position, I'll attack them on their flanks. Once I call to advance, then you can charge through the smoke," came the reply

"Yes, Miss Orange Pekoe."

Orange Pekoe loomed over the map at her hands of the town. The hammer of the flanking force that destroyed the Chindits would be attacking from the south or west of the town she reasoned.

"Rukururi, Nilgiri, I need you two to buy me time. If the Jumbos attack the town I need you to slow them as long as possible."

"Yes Miss Orange Pekoe" responded Rukuriri.

"Yes, commander," Negril called back.

This was the only time they could take the initiative, with Saunders engaged in the town.

"Driver - slowly around this corner. Gunner, be ready," Orange Pekoe said cautiously. Risking the flag tank was something she really didn't want to do.

The tracks clattered on the cobbled road, the gun pointing in the direction of the last known location of the column. As they rounded the building ahead of them, Orange Pekoe saw that the tanks were no longer there, but a blue flag on a thin pole betrayed the departing Saunder's flag tank. The small flag waved and started to sink out of sight as the tank it was attached to drove down a ramp from the seawall to the sandy beach.

"Driver advances quickly," Orange Pekoe ordered. The Churchill immediately lurched forward trying its best to catch up with the Shermans.

The Shermans spread out in line abreast with Alisa's tank in the middle as they drove onto the sandy beach. "Easy does it," Alisa warned her driver, as once leaving the safety of the concrete ramp, the tracks began to sink into the beach.

"Full power! Get us moving forward!" Alisa commanded. The tanks tracks slid on the countless meagre stones, sliding around in the same spot and sinking ever deeper.

"We are stuck!" Alisa's driver yelled as she tried to reverse the tank back to the safety of the concrete slipway. But as much as the engine revved and tracks span, the tank seemed to slide deeper and deeper into the beige swamp.

"Can anyone still move?" Alisa called to her troop. The response was not what she wanted to hear, all tanks were mired by the sand.

Orange Pekoe listened to the sound of the Shermans high revving V8 engines. She couldn't believe her luck as the sources of the noise came into view. Some of the Shermans had got stuck at different points, with the flag tank isolated. The side of the hull was perfectly aligned and the gun was still pointing ahead of it facing the sea.

"Move to the sea wall to target the flag tank," was Orange Pekoe's transmission to the crew. Reaching the sea wall, the 75mm depressed to target the side of defenceless flag tank, and with one pull of the trigger the match was over. St Gloriana had won against the odds.

Orange Pekoe climbed out of her Churchill, to thank Alisa for a fair game. However, Alisa didn't seem to want to come out of the tank. Orange Pekoe made her way over to the Easy Eight as she climbed the tank with its two waving flags. She looked down into the open commander hatch. "Are you hurt Alisa?" she questioned the commander, who was sitting with arms folded on the commanders' seat.

"I'm fine thank you. I just didn't want a repeat of what happened in the Ooari match," Alisa snapped back.

"But that was just an accident?" Orange Pekoe protested, amazed anyone could be that suspicious.

"Well, I wouldn't want to take the risk you know," Alisa said as she pushed herself up to meet Orange Pekoe, who in turn offered Alisa her hand, which she grabbed and lifted her out into the fresh sea breeze.

"An understandable concern. The gun is facing the complete other direction and is pointing into the sky just for good measure," Orange added with a nod light grin. They climbed off and Alisa leaned against the side of the tank as they both talked about the match, before Orange Pekoe's loader came out to meet them with two steaming teacups in hand for both commanders. Of which one was accepted and one respectfully declined.

* * *

**12th April, Darjeeling's Apartment, 12:32**

The highlight of Sarah's week was finally getting the bulky cast removed from her leg. Luckily, this simple procedure was done at the much more homely and agreeable nurses' office in the school, rather than heading all the way to the dreaded hospital. She was surprised by how thin and pale her leg looked once it was finally released from its plaster prison. She was certainly not a fan of the large and still pink scar on her knee from where the surgeon had put it back together after her fall down that flight of concrete steps into the basement that seemed like it was ages ago.

The removal of her cast was not the end of her treatment, however, as she was duly presented with two heavy braces by the doctor. One was for her knee; a chunky black monstrosity with velcro straps. The other was even bigger and resembled a large black ski boot, complete with more velcro straps to hold it in place on her lower leg, ankle and foot. Sarah was very unimpressed with her new medical appliances, hoping she might have been free of such things, but she did have to admit they were an improvement on the cast. These at least could be taken off when in the shower or bath or even in bed if she didn't have any pain.

Her arm, sadly, remained in its plaster cast as it still hadn't healed enough to allow for it to be removed. Nonetheless, by being very careful that her arm didn't go in the water Sarah was able to have her first bath for weeks, relaxing in the hot water for nearly an hour before getting a bit frisky with Darjeeling afterwards.

* * *

**13th April, Darjeeling's Apartment, 13:56**

Sarah was home from school, as she had a half day. Her school day had been quite good and although the fracture boot and knee brace made her limp still, it was much easier to walk in how she could bend her knee a bit. With that in mind, she was soon going to go out again to see Orange Pekoe to ask about the possibility of returning to an active role within the Sensha-do team. She was fairly confident that she could fulfil the role of a tank commander, although she did have one or two doubts about her mobility still. She was practising her walk, limping up and down the corridor, when Darjeeling arrived back from the library.

"I look like a robot!" she complained to Darjeeling after they had greeted each other.

"No robot has ever looked as gorgeous as you!" Darjeeling replied, making Sarah giggle. "But did you know the word 'robot' derives from the old church Slavanic word 'rabota' meaning slave, and you're no slave my little teacup. Besides, it makes you look very heroic!" she added giving Sarah a little pat on the head.

"I'm not sure about that heroic part… and my toes are exposed at the end of this medical boot thing. It looks silly!" Sarah whined.

"Ah, I know just the thing to cheer you up!" Darjeeling said with a smile of triumph and disappeared into the bedroom. Sarah was sure that whatever it was that Darjeeling was going to get, it wouldn't be just the thing to cheer her up, and this was confirmed when Darjeeling returned with a bottle of purple glitter nail polish in her hand.

* * *

**13th April, The Tea Garden, 15:05 **

Sarah was on her unevenly-paced way to see Orange Pekoe at The Tea Garden. She also suspected Rukuriri would be there, as she seemed to be wherever Orange Pekoe was these days. Sarah had dressed in her red uniform complete with lucky beret. Her uniform was immaculate and well ironed, but she didn't like the look of the pair of braces on her left leg. Even less to her tastes were her five sparkly purple toenails at the end of her bad foot. She had tried to get Darjeeling to change her mind, but Sarah found she always ended up giving in to whatever Darjeeling suggested. Today had been no exception.

After a noisy ascent of the stairs and an alternately heavy-gaited walk across The Club Room, Sarah saw Rukuriri also heading to the commander's office. Their paths intersect halfway across The Club Room.

"Hi," said Sarah, trying to be civil as humanly possible.

"Hi," said Rukuriri. "Wow, what have you done to your toenails?" was her first question.

"Darj… I… er… painted them" Sarah said, blushing and annoyed that this was the first thing Rukuriri had commented on.

Sarah and Rukuriri reached the door at the same time, knocked and went in. Orange Pekoe, looking a little overworked, was inside with a desk full of papers.

"Ah, my two vice-commanders!" she said, trying to sound friendly. "Good afternoon Rukuriri; good afternoon English Breakfast. Wow, your toe nails are bright!" Sarah blushed again as Orange Pekoe said this.

Sarah was determined to for Orange Pekoe to hear her first before whatever it was that Rukuriri wanted, so she piped up immediately, explaining that she'd had her cast removed from her leg; she could bend her knee again (mostly) and she was confident that she could return to an active role in the team. Orange Pekoe looked dubious while Rukuriri shook her head.

"It's not the practice of St. Gloriana to allow injured students to participate in Sensha-do until they are fully healed," Rukuriri stated.

Sarah was ready for this argument. "What about Rosehip?" she shot back. "She was allowed to participate in a practice match while her ankle was still in plaster!" Sarah said, referring to an occasion the previous year.

"That's not the same; that was a practice match only; she was getting that cast off the very next day…" Rukuriri began to argue. Orange Pekoe held up her hand.

"Nonetheless, English Breakfast has a point; we do sometimes permit it," she said. Rukuriri scowled. "There is, however, a safety test," Orange Pekoe went on. "Especially after recent events, this is more important than ever. Although Sensha-do is a very safe sport, tanks can occasionally catch fire. If you're not in a condition to get out of a tank and well clear of it – at least five metres away – in under twenty seconds, then we can't let you compete."

Sarah had been aware there might have been some sort of test she'd have to undergo, and so wasn't phased by this.

"Whenever you're ready to test me, I'll do it," she said. "This afternoon in fact. Now, if you want?"

Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri looked at each other before Orange Pekoe shrugged and picked up a phone on her desk.

"Hanger four? Can you drive the Cromwell out onto the practice field for me? We'll be down in fifteen minutes," she said into it. Turning to her two vice-commanders. "Okay, we will head down there in a bit, but before we depart Miss Rukuriri could you inform me why you gave this information out to the Kuromorimine spy?" She took out a picture of Sarah giving one of her strategy meetings, pointing to a map on a table with all the main team members clustered around it.

"This is Kuromorimine's best 'spy'. She would be able to get information like this," Rukuriri said rather defiantly.

"What is this?" Sarah asked, rather confused.

Rukuriri sighed out of annoyance, "This is Operation Double Cross. Assam passed this on to me. All the spies from all schools are double agents working for us,"

Sarah looked at the picture as Orange Pekoe began to speak. "This looks way too staged. Look at the angle of the picture; how would a person get into that spot? I would think something was up if I was a part of Kuromorimine's intelligence department," she said. Sarah nodded in agreement.

"Any information being sent from Operation Double Cross will be examined by me personally from now on. Understood, Miss Rukuriri?"

Rukuriri snatched the photo off Orange Pekoe's desk. "Yes Miss Orange Pekoe."

"Okay, then you two head down to the garages. I'll be down in just a moment," the commander said.

Sarah and Rukuriri left the office together, with Sarah feeling pleased that whatever it was that Rukuriri had wanted would now have to wait until after her safety test.

Outside the office, Rukuriri turned to her once the door had closed.

"Just a word of advice, Miss English," she said coldly. "Nail polish like that with your uniform looks ridiculous, although honestly thinking that you could compete in Sensha-do with your leg like that and your arm not even healed is even more ridiculous. I just hope you are not wasting my time - and the team's!" With that, she strode off ripping the picture up and dumping the remnants on the floor, leaving Sarah to make her slow way to the practice field alone.

* * *

**The Spring League Tournament: Round 4 results**

Saunders University High School 2-v-3 St. Gloriana Girls' College

Anzio Girls' High School 0-v-5 Pravda Girls' High School

Chi-Ha-Tan Academy 2-v-5 Ooarai Girls' Academy

Kuromorimine Girls' Academy 5-v-0 BC Freedom High School

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round ****4**

1st Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 18

Joint 2nd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 17

Joint 2nd Pravda Girls' High School - 17

4th St. Gloriana Girls' College - 13

5th Saunders University High School - 9

6th BC Freedom High School - 7

7th Anzio Girls' High School - 4

8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 2


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 - The rattle of tracks**

* * *

**13th April, Sensha-do Practice Grounds, 15:25 **

The Cromwell appeared with Honeybush's head clearly visible from the driver's porthole. She parked the tank and bounced out in a seemingly bubbly mood.

"Are you doing the fire test?" she asked, slapping her hand on Sarah's arm. Sarah nodded in turn."Nothing that you can't do English, and anyway nice purple nails! It goes with your coat," Honeybush said, smiling as she walked away.

Sarah was not too sure if Honeybush was being sincere or not. She shook it off and took a deep breath and climbed up onto the Cromwell taking her time with every step making sure not to stumble on the rather slippery metal. She got into the turret and sat inside of her Cromwell. The smell of cordite, sweat and oil made it feel like home. With the commander's hatch open above her she peeked her head out as she looked out waiting for Orange Pekoe to arrive which she promptly did.

"Okay English, are you ready?!" Orange Pekoe shouted towards her a whistle and phone in hand.

Sarah gave the thumbs up and slid inside closing the hatch with a hard metal thwack. The small rays of sunlight coming through to periscopes and the cream dome of the interior light barely illuminating the inside of the turret. She sat down in the commander's seat making herself comfortable and began to wait for the signal to start the safety test.

"Okay, left hand on handle push up, climb out onto the turret, use the gun barrel as a handrail and off the front of the tank," she murmured the usual exit plan to herself.

Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri were standing several metres away both looking at the olive drab Cromwell with its white painted pegasus logo on the side of the turret.

"Do you think she will make it in time?" Rukuriri questioned, her arms crossed. Orange Pekoe didn't answer, but blew her whistle and started the stopwatch on her phone with Rukuriri watching contemptuously beside her.

Hearing the dull screech of the whistle, Sarah pushed open the hatch above her. With the sunlight shooting straight in, then pushing herself up out of the commander's hatch of the Cromwell. But as she placed her chunky medical boot on the commander's seat, the lack of feeling in her foot and the poor grip from the boot caused her injured left leg to slide out from under her. She slipped, falling back into the tank, bashing her forehead on the brim of the commander's hatch and crashing with a hard thud onto the gunner's seat, with her head resting on the commanders seat.

"No, I can't give up, not now, no!" she screeched out loud. She pushed herself up, wiping off sweat from her forehead. This time she took a firm grip with her strapped up foot, making sure to place it dead centre of the commander's seat. She climbed out and using first the turret as a guide and then holding onto the gun, she climbed down the front of the tank in all about 30 seconds.

"English, are you OK?!" Orange Pekoe shouted, running over to her.

"Yes I'm fine" she replied wiping more sweat off her forehead. Sarah looked down to her hand thinking she saw something off, it was no warm transparent sweat, but dark red blood and her head really began to hurt as the adrenaline ran thin. The pain was soon accompanied by dizziness as she rubbed her eyes frantically with her dripping red hands trying desperately to keep the blood out of her squinting eyes. She slowly wobbled her way towards the pair of girls coming towards her. Suddenly a dark haze seemed to roll over her eyes, the last thing she saw was Orange Pekoe and Rukuriri running over to her as she toppled over in a faint, falling hard onto her side, just before the two could catch her.

* * *

**13th April, Darjeelings apartment, 22:20**

Sarah had been discharged from hospital yet again, with yet another injury this school year, which must have been a St. Gloriana record by now. With a plaster over her forehead, the doctor explained to Sarah that she was suffering from a mild concussion. Darjeeling as per usual picked her up and now they were both back in her apartment.

Sarah was sitting at one end of the sofa. "I was doing so well..." she said in a light daze to Darjeeling who sat on the other end as she tried her best to study.

"Yep" Darjeeling replied rather disinterested as she sat at the other end of the sofa, not looking over to Sarah at all but kept her eyes glugged to her notes.

Sarah continued, "And my darn boot."

"I know you have told me now eight times!" Darjeeling said back, sounding rather calm but annoyed at the same time.

"Have I? I'm so confused," Sarah said as she rubbed her head. taking a few moments to gather herself. "I was..."

Darjeeling threw her papers all over the floor "I've had enough!" Darjeeling yelled at her. "Your boot I know! I know! Why can't you do anything without hurting yourself?!" Darjeeling stood up and pointed right at Sarah "I've had it! Next time you injure yourself again. I'm not picking you up from the hospital. You can stay there for all I care. Go to bed! Now!"

Sarah just looked at her and rubbed her head. Everything seemed so difficult; it was like being sleepy and drunk with a hint of room spin. She stood up without any emotion and did as commanded and wandered into the bedroom.

* * *

**15th April, The Tea Garden, Main Sensha-do Room, 16:54**

Sarah still had a sticking plaster on her forehead but she felt a lot better. Her concentration levels were better but the headaches and dizziness still persisted. However, instead of staying at the flat and recuperating, she was heading towards the main office of the Sensha-do team because Rukuriri had requested her presence via a text. Even before reaching the door, she could hear the rather too common, especially when both Rukuriri and Orange Pekoe were alone, the sound of an argument busting through the oak door.

"Listen! We need to use it!" came the rather annoyed voice of Rukuriri. Sarah could tell that Rukuriri was worked up, her voice had the lisp which she was normally able to disguise. It didn't always work if she was unable to control her emotions especially when angry, as was now clearly the case.

"As I said, no! Who has trained on it?" Orange Pekoe snapped back. Usually, this tone of voice would end the debate, but Rukuriri continued.

"Once English is here she will wholeheartedly agwee with me. We need it if we are going to stand any chance of winning this match against Kuromorimine."

"My answer will still be the same. We don't need to use that thing." This was the best and most optimal time to enter, so Sarah did so, knocking hard on the door first.

"Enter," Orange Pekoe spoke, but had her eyes glued on Rukuriri.

Sarah entered as Orange had instructed, Orange Pekoe was seated behind her desk with Rukuriri standing in front of her, "I was called for?" she answered pretending to be oblivious to anything said prior behind the door.

"Mith English Bweakfast, I'm glad you're here. Pleath inform Mith Orange Pekoe of our chances of winning against Kuwomorimine?" Rukuriri stated with her unfortunate lisp sounding very prominent, pointing to one of Sarah's brown folders as she spoke.

"As it said in my evaluation, Miss Rukuriri. The odds of winning are next to nil. We could get some points on the board but to win outright is highly unlikely," stated Sarah firmly and to the point as she looked between Orange Pekoe's and Rukuriri's glares.

Rukuriri slammed the folder on Orange Pekoe's desk. "So, you're saying we have no chanth then? Ith there anyway of changing thesth oddths?" Rukuriri just turned, not even waiting for an answer from Sarah and just looked down onto Orange Pekoe.

"No, we have hope Miss Rukuriri…" Sarah waited for some snarky responses but nothing was uttered. "… but for changing the odds we would need a complete overhaul. We would need more firepower…"

"What is to thay we don't have that?" Rukuriri cut in, trying but failing to regain some control over her voice in her excited state.

"My tank won't be available until at least the 20th April and the TOG II is out of action... the electric motors …" Sarah said, a little confused.

"What if I thay we have a tank that could be even more effective but Mith Orange Pekoe will not allow us to use it?" Rukuriri spluttered.

Orange Pekoe looked up at Sarah. "Please hear me out before making any comment, Miss English Breakfast…" Sarah placed one arm behind her back squeezing her hand into fist slowly tensing and releasing. _'Does Orange Pekoe want us to win or not?!'_ Sarah thought to herself.

"… after the awful week long tournament, Kay gifted us a thank you present to Darjeeling as a show of friendship and her outstanding guidance throughout the whole ordeal. Something with British and American ties. A Firefly…"

"What?! Why was I never told this?!" Sarah said in anger and confusion. Orange Pekoe looked up to Sarah's face as a fearsome scowl was sent back Orange Pekoe's way.

"Because, Miss English, the governors of our schools know nothing about it. We have had to hide it away from them otherwise they would scrap it. We can do one of two things; use it and annoy the governors and increase our chances of winning very slightly or we don't use it at all."

This was the final straw. "Miss Orange Pekoe do you want us to win this or not! We need all the heavy-hitting firepower against Kuromorimine that we have got! And to leave it somewhere to... to gather dust or be a massive paperweight?! That's not what these tanks are for! ... I came to St Gloriana to work hard and achieve great things for this school. I put my life on the line for this school. But you want to risk nothing! NOTHING!" Sarah turned and stormed out of the office, the heavy wooden oak doors crashing against the walls, with Rukuriri in hot pursuit after her co-vice.

It wasn't too hard for Rukuriri to catch up to Sarah as she hobbled down the steps.

"English, we normally don't see eye to eye these days, but all I can say is thank you for what you have done today for St Gloriana," Sarah noted Rukuriri's voice was now back under control.

"Why hasn't Darjeeling told me about this? About this Firefly?" she asked, rubbing the plaster on her forehead.

Rukuriri walked Sarah to the bottom of the stairs, then looked around. Seeing nobody around, and with the oak door of Orange Pekoe's office closed, there could be no prying ears or eyes.

"Kay and her boyfriend arrived today at the Ark Royal unannounced. She didn't make arrangements, she just arrived. This doesn't normally happen," Rukuriri said, a little hushed.

"Is she still here? I haven't been able to speak to her for a long time. I didn't even get the chance to speak to her at the ball," Sarah replied.

"She's gone; she was only here from midday til about three... Please don't take this to heart this is only a rumour…" Sarah nodded looking up at Rukuriri's brown eyes. "... as you must know Darjeeling has had other partners in the past. Some have suggested that Kay may have been one of them," Rukuriri put it bluntly.

"So what if she did or not? I don't care."

"Maybe the tank was a present to her, for other reasons? Maybe as a take me back gift? I hear her and her boyfriend are on rocks at the moment," Rukuriri said with a telling shrug.

Sarah just looked at Rukuriri. Slowly Rukuriri backed off, knowing she had crossed the line.

"Do you think Darjeeling is this shallow? You don't understand her like I do! Get out of my sight. You filthy piece of work. How dare you insult our previous commander! How dare you!" Sarah shouted. Moving past her, she left the building.

* * *

**15th April, Darjeelings apartment, 21:10**

It was one of those evenings. Sarah had done her school work and was mentally exhausted with not only the burden of strategic planning for the next match but with what Rukuriri has said to her, which she really wanted to push that to the back of her mind. To get more comfortable on the sofa, she had decided to lay along the whole length. Her bad leg raised by armrest at the end of the sofa and her laptop resting precariously on her chest.

"You know you don't have to hog it," Darjeeling said, walking into the room from the bedroom wearing her light sky blue silk dressing gown.

"You know I just wanted to keep it warm for you," Sarah added, keeping her eyes on the screen of the laptop.

Darjeeling walked over to sit in the only other chair, which was a rather bland looking wooden chair, which Sarah on occasions used to rest her foot or throw her dirty clothes over. Tonight the chair was dragged over to near Sarah's head which rested on the other end of the sofa on top of the armrest.

"So I had a quirky question," Darjeeling said as she sat next to Sarah. For an outside observer, this would look like a psychological evaluation.

"Yessssss?" Sarah responded, her eyes still glued to the screen, as she slowly began to make letters into words.

"So you know of my sexual preference right?"

Sarah carried onto tapping away on the keyboard. "Yes, you're bisexual. Nothing wrong with that," Sarah said back rather nonchalantly.

"I was thinking..." Darjeeling said as she leaned over closing the laptop so quickly it took Sarah rather by surprise, leaving her in a bit of a daze. "... you said you have never been with a man before?"

Sarah gaze darted over to Darjeeling's face. "Darjeeling? I don't think I've never been attracted to boys. They're too smelly and hairy legs like yuck."

"I mean, you never know unless you try it? As the saying goes 'A person who has never made a mistake never tried anything new'," Darjeeling added getting a little red to her cheeks.

"Ummm thanks for the offer. But no thanks," Sarah said

"Listen. I can find you a nice..."

"No thank you, Darjeeling... I love you and nothing else," Sarah said, taking her hand.

"Okay then. That's fine. No problem. Hopefully, you'll come to bed later. I do get lonely without my Teacup next to me." Darjeeling said as she stood letting go of Sarah's hand and moved off to the bedroom.

Sarah opened her laptop again and continued on writing up her essay. _'Why would Darj ask me something like that? Did I do something to annoy her? Am I not any good? What? Is she going to go for a boy over me?'_ her head shouted at her.

"For fuck sake Sarah just get it together," she whispered to herself. "Darjeeling wouldn't leave you, just because she's a little horny ... geeze!"

After a while Sarah hobbled her way back into the bedroom. The window on the other side of the room allowed a small ray of moonlight falling onto the peacefully slumbering Darjeeling, but as per usual she was taking up all of the covers onto her side of the king size bed. Sarah walked in and sat on her side of the bed, making the odd glance up towards the full length Darjeeling pillow resting upright against the cupboard, with its seductive look giving Sarah rather a weird vibe. She opened her bedside cabinet to take a painkiller. She looked down at her tablet, but something caught her eye. A small dark blue strap poking out from under the bed. She pulled it out and picked it up. It was a bra but from a bikini; one cup having red and white stripes the other dark blue with stars. Sarah just threw the bra underneath the bed again.

* * *

'_I've never looked under the bed before, maybe it was always there…'_ she thought to herself, looking over to Darjeeling who was still facing the other way. _'She wouldn't cheat on me… she wouldn't. I won't tell her I found this.' _

Sarah just shook her head and slipped her body under the covers of the bed, lightly placing her arm on Darjeeling's waist.

_The pitch black of the nothingness relented, replaced by the sound of light panels ticked as they powered up with the mellow sound of electricity buzzing through the cream white light as it began to pour from them. Of a familiar white panelled ceiling. _

_Sarah looked up from her bed she lay in and counted the panels. "27 ... No, not here. Please not here," She looked across and onto the floor, the slowly expanding red puddle, and a chess board strewn all across the floor. The source of the blood was a young man in his black blazer, lying face up. She rushed out of the bed sliding on her knees as she cradled his head. "James you're going to be fine," she blubbered towards him, her tears falling and mixing with the blood on the floor. _

_"I'm going to die here aren't I?" he said whizzing in a tone she never heard from James before, of him sounding scared. _

_"No you won't, not if I can do anything about it!" She said as she reached for his wound in the center of his chest, but her hand collided with something solid, she looked up to her hand but nothing was blocking it, she pushed forward again but her hand just seemed to hit a glass wall. "James I can't reach your wound, something is blocking my hand." she said as she started punching this invisible wall, hoping she could break through._

_"Sarah ..." he took an uneasy breath. "... tell me about mum" _

_She looked down at his face, as a small tear rolled down his face either from hers or his it did matter. "She was an amazing person, the great mum. Dad loved her to bits..."_

_"How did she die?"_

_"Well um..."_

_"Sarah, how did she die. I want to know, please let me know," he begged her, his voice becoming more and more strained with every word. _

_"She... she died suddenly. Dad didn't tell me how but she was going to have a baby, we would have had a baby brother," she said. James just closed his eyes and nodded just a little. "I know it hurts, Dad knew it hurts which is why he keeps it away from us. Don't be mad at him." _

_"I won't. I could never"_

_"But I don't want to have a child, James. I want a family but I scared James I don't want what would happen to mum to happen to me"_

_"Would Darjeeling be the mother then?" _

_"How do you..." _

_Like what Darjeeling would do, he put his finger on Sarah's lips to stop her talking. "Whenever I mentioned your name to her, her face would always seem to smile, there had to be something there between you two," his breathing increased, with his mouth making a last gulp of air. "I'm going Sarah, I'll see you in the future... Just remember this wasn't the way I wanted to go… maybe ten beautiful women ... by my side... on a sunny beach..."_

_The bad joke turned the rather bleak tone of the whole conversation. Sarah even smiled, as she still sniffed and cried at the same time. "No don't go" _

_"But Sarah you'll be like mum, a great person and an even better mother..." His chest lowered and his grey eyes closed. Sarah just froze and hugged his head and slowly rocked forward and backwards not knowing what to do. _

_"I was supposed to die, James, not you!" she cried as she continued to hold his head stroking his hair. The pressure of something solid and cold was placed on the back of her skull. She knew what it was before she looked down at the blood reflecting the doctor in his white lab coat and beside him the young girl. In his outstretched arm his handgun; his face covered with a devilish smile across his face. _

"_Look at her! She said she lost her brother!" the girl said with a cackling voice._

_"Don't worry Miss Alexander. You will be joining him." He pulled the trigger._

* * *

**23rd April, Darjeeling's Apartment, 04:13**

Sarah shot up from her bed, sweat coursing down her face; her heart racing and her knee throbbing.

"Sarah are you okay?" came a sleepy voice in the darkness next to her.

"Just a... nothing, nothing. Knee pains," she said as she slowly laid back down, catching her breath. Darjeeling put her hand across Sarah's waist, making Sarah relax just that little more. She closed her eyes just waiting for the next nightmare to begin.

Later on, a grateful sun rose again, its warm glow landing softly onto Sarah's sleep deprived eyelids. She just rolled over, covering her face with her pillow, longing to return back to the darkness. A warm hand ran up and down along Sarah's back the light touch of skin on skin pressing down.

"You can't sleep all day Sarah; you need to do work today, the big match is tomorrow," said the voice. Sarah just refused to answer Darjeeling's call to action.

"You have to do your maths and chemistry homework to be doing," Darjeeling said, rubbing her back with a little more force to get her up, but again no response, even though this usually did the trick. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"I just need five minutes please... alone" Sarah said. Darjeeling could hear she was upset, so she walked out of the bedroom and picked up her phone to contact the school.

"This is Darjeeling. I'm not feeling too good today; headaches and feeling nauseous. It's best if I stay away from the other students, I wouldn't want others catching this bug." The phone chattered away and the call was ended.

Darjeeling just made her way to the living room and sat rather dumbfounded about this whole ordeal. About half an hour later and hobbling, Sarah made her way towards the living room, her face sore and her eyes inflamed by the large amount of tears they had made. Darjeeling noticed this and stood up from the sofa but really didn't know what to do. Go for a hug, kiss, say something? But she did neither of the options and just looked up at Sarah, who glided past her as if Darjeeling wasn't there.

Sarah walked up to the mantelpiece where a small white and gold china jar rested. "J...James I wanted to s...say h...hap...py twenty first bir...thday," she muttered, crying as she did.

Darjeeling finally knew what to do. She glided over to Sarah and held her hand, hoping this would have some effect but again it did nothing.

"It was my fault... if I just left Maho, if I didn't come to St Gloriana. If I didn't start Tankery. You would still be alive," she sobbed.

"Sarah, what are you saying?" Darjeeling asked, trying to make her see sense. "James would always have wanted you to do well... you've done everything and more, he would be so, so proud of you. Who would have saved Maho?"

Sarah turned to face Darjeeling. "My crew saved her, not me! Rosehip got the message out, not me! And he took the bullet that was meant for me, I can't describe the guilt I feel; I was the one who murdered him. I had my brother murdered!" Sarah screamed at Darjeeling.

Darjeeling wrapped her arms about Sarah and just hugged her. "You mean so much to me, if James was here - which he is."

She parted Sarah's hair, to look at Sarah's bloodshot eyes. "He would want me to look after you as much as possible. I don't want for you to feel so bad," she said. She looked over to the bedroom. "Listen today I'm having a day off studying so you and I can have some fun."

"But your studies are really important," Sarah stammered.

"Do you know this saying? 'Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.' Okay, you sit down and I'll have something ready for you" She walked into the bedroom as Sarah gradually sat down on her side of the well moulded sofa.

Sarah was just looking rather vaguely in the direction of the pot still with a sore heart, her guilt still innately visible to see. "Tada!" Darjeeling said raising her arms into the air like she had been the lucky winner of a game show prize.

"Darjeeling. Why are you dressed like that..." Sarah said, sighing as she spoke.

"I can't do any work if I'm not in the correct clothing"

"But a maid? It's really not your thing"

Darjeeling looked down at her black and white maid costume, which was more of a cheap Halloween costume than the real thing. "So what would you like? Tea? C...c...coffee? Maybe a full English break..."

"I'm going to stop you right there Darjeeling" Sarah said. Darjeeling just looked down and the happiness of her face was instantly wiped off.

"Assam and Orange Pekoe told me before the last time you cooked..."

"What? What did they say? They said they really enjoyed it" Darjeeling said, rather hurt.

Sarah didn't really know what to do; she couldn't throw Assam and Orange Pekoe under the bus, but maybe this was the best time to tell her. "... they said ... it doesn't matter, I'll cook with you."

"Nope you're staying where you are, my little teacup. Maid Darjeeling will cater to your every need."

"Then could I have ..." As she thought drastically of what was easy to make that even Darjeeling couldn't mess up. She looked to the large flat-screen TV and back to Darjeeling's expectant face. "...we will have a movie day then, you pick a film for us till we fall asleep."

"But what about food?"

"We can order in," Sarah suggested.

Darjeeling made a loving smile. "But please let me do something, I know you don't want me too but of all days this day you need my full attention, let me do something... anything. I have it, I'll make you a bacon sandwich, you love them!"

Hearing those words rang extremely large alarm bells in Sarah's head. _'If there is a fire I'm really dead, I can't run, I can't jump. I really don't want to burn alive.' _

"Darjeeling that's fi..." but as she said that Darjeeling skipped happily into the kitchen throwing on Sarah's cooking apron.

"You like it nice and crispy don't you, my little teacup?"

"Yeah," she said trying to keep a happy tone, as she planned her escape route when the inevitable fire started. But it was hopeless, there was no way she could, there was only one course of action she could do to save them both. Sarah sighed. "Never in human cooking history has bacon been such a dangerous procedure," she muttered to herself. She leant forward and squeezed both sides of her left knee. The sound of a screaming Sarah would stop any Darjeeling action, which of course it did as she darted out of the kitchen.

"A you okay my little teacup?" Darjeeling yelled running over to Sarah.

"No not really my knee really hurts, could you … um, stay with me, my knee hurts less when you're around," she said making up any excuse to keep her out of the kitchen.

"Of course, anything for you," Darjeeling said, giving Sarah's newly plaster-free forehead a light kiss. She then moved over to the other end of the sofa. Sarah, thinking quickly, pivoted herself resting her head on Darjeeling's thighs.

"You said your knee hurt?" Darjeeling said.

"" Yes. But now my head hurts," Sarah just said back. Darjeeling just shook her head with a light giggle.

"You are just a little devil you know. Do you know of the old fable? The boy who cried wolf?"

Sarah nodded look up towards her face, half being blocked by the protruding white and black cotton chest area of the dress.

"I'm just going to repeat it for you as it seems you need reminding. Once upon a time, there was a shepherd boy who used to take his flock of sheep to the hill to graze on the fresh green grass. Sitting there, he had nothing to do the whole day. One day, an idea struck him. To overcome his boredom, he cried out, 'Wolf! Wolf!' All the men came running with their sticks and to their dismay found no wolf! The boy laughed.

Again after a few days, he cried out, 'Wolf! Wolf!' and the villagers again came running up the hill only to find that the shepherd boy had fooled them. He laughed and laughed, seeing that he had succeeded in fooling them again. However, this time, the villagers were very angry, and they told him that the next time he cries out for help, they would not come.

Next day when his flock of sheep were grazing, he suddenly saw a wolf. He cried out aloud 'Wolf! Wolf!' But alas! No one came to rescue his sheep. The shepherd boy returned home crying only with few of his sheep. The wolf had taken away one of his sheep, and few of his sheep had fled. From that day onwards, he promised never to lie again." Darjeeling finally said ending the story. "The moral of the story is: don't lie. Especially to me." Darjeeling looked down to see her little teacup fully asleep.

"Poor dear," Darjeeling added, stroking her head as Sarah snoozed.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 - The fire of guns**

* * *

**24th April JSF Battleground, stands. 11:45**

Sarah and Darjeeling sat in the stands as the St Gloriana team rolled out, displayed on the large screens ahead of them. On seeing the tanks the crowd started hushed whispers, discussing the St Gloriana line up amongst themselves. Sarah and Darjeeling sat at the end of their row near the bottom of the steps leading up to the high heavens of the stands above.

"Howdy!" a girl yelled across from them. Sarah turned her head to see the body of Kay in her standard grey blazer, white shirt and red skirt of the Saunders uniform, plus her customary high socks. She had a large smile running across her face and her eyes remained closed but she was waving her arm ecstatically at them. Darjeeling remained unflinching, sipping her tea.

Behind Kay a tall boy with a blond hairstyle which looked somewhat like a David Beckham haircut with it cut short on the sides but with a fair amount of combed hair on top. He also had a not too dissimilar uniform to that which Kay was wearing - apart from the skirt of course. He carried a large tray with vast amounts of fast food covering it, with burger boxes, drinks and fries balancing precariously on top of one another. Kay scooted past some empty seats and sat next to Darjeeling.

"Hay Darj, hows it go'in?" Kay said, completely focusing on Darjeeling and not even recording Sarah's existence.

Darjeeling turned her head looking to her and then to the boy behind.

"Is this the new boy then?" Darjeeling said without hesitation nodding to his direction as he walked slowly making sure not to drop a single item.

"Yep ain't he a cutie!" she said, full of energy. "Well, he is supposedly the best commander in the boys league in the JSF..." she then lowered her voice. "...which means he's on the same par as maybe Anchovy, but more like Pepperoni. But at least he's better than my ex."

"I see. You have moved on pretty fast then. How long was it? Two days? You have boys lining up for you? Or maybe there's a waiting list?" Darjeeling asked rather bluntly.

Kay giggled and nodded, she reverted back to her normal tone of voice. "And anyway he is really nice and would do anything to learn from me," she said rather smugly.

"Anything? ... Really?" Darjeeling said again in her monotone voice but with a hint of intrigue this time.

Kay winked. "It's no two pounder."

"Pershing M3?"

"Na, more like a L20 howitzer."

"Well that is rather impressive," Darjeeling said with a devilish grin.

"So where is English?" Kay asked.

Just before Sarah could move her head out of the Shadow of Darjeeling, the tall boy used his knee to push down the seat of the white plastic chair next to Kay and placed the tray onto it keeping the seat from springing up.

"Darjeeling," he said as he bowed towards her. "I'm Takum Itsu ..."

"My boyfriend," Kay said standing immediately placing both her hands on his face as her face filled his. All that was heard was the sound of lips battling each other. Darjeeling watched, with her cheeks going a little flustered.

Sarah just looked at Darjeeling, a little in shock really. She knew Darjeeling was a helpless romantic but still. "Darjeeling," she said, tugging her shoulder In the hope of breaking her trance. "Darjeeling? Hello?"

"Oh I seemed to lose my train of thought for a second or two," Darjeeling said as she eventually moved her eyes back onto Sarah.

Kay's eyes finally moved off her man and finally found half of Sarah, the other covered by Darjeeling. "Ah there is my little English Breakfast!" she said.

She quickly moved off her boyfriend, leaving him in an odd daze wondering what just happened. She pushed a seat down and sat on the edge to look over to Sarah, resting her head on her arm, which in turn was resting on the top of her bare skin from her short shorts. "So how's you?" she asked rather plainly.

"So so," Sarah added with a shrug.

Kay just looked up and down at Sarah. Her eyes stopped and stared at her temple on the left side of her head. "Is that where..."

Sarah nodded, lifting her pin curls covering her temple. The inch long scar where the stitches had been stuck out like a sore thumb.

Kay just looked and said nothing really. She looked over to Darjeeling. "I didn't mean to hurt her..."

Darjeeling just closed her eyes; her mind looking through her unlimited knowledge of quotes to find the most appropriate one for the situation. She opened her eyes and spoke. "We must let bygones be bygones. Miss English Breakfast and I know you were under immense levels of stress at that time." She ended her quote and rested her arm on Kay's shoulder.

"I'm sorry English," Kay just muttered.

Sarah just sat there. She didn't want any more emotional baggage, plus a Kay on the near verge of tears would make a bit of a scene. Sarah slowly stood up and hobbled over. She wrapped her arms around the seated Kay giving her a light hug. "There there. There there. Thank you Kay," she added with a smile.

The tall boy finally moved over sitting next to Kay. "You're English Breakfast right?" He asked while sizing her up.

"Hopefully there isn't a second one," Sarah said, hoping to lighten the mood slightly.

"The night attack on the farm barn? The charge of the airfield? The early defence of the first objective? You did all those?"

"I was Rosehip's vice-commander, I just did what I was told really," Sarah added with a nervous chuckle.

"I thought someone who was related to Mr. Perkins would have been doing better than follow orders," he said.

Sarah's face formed a frown, as she knew nothing of this Perkins bloke. "Who's he?" she inquired.

"A British champion in the UK Sensha-do league?"

Her mind suddenly clicked back into action as she remembered someone mentioning that name before.

"Well, he's amazing to watch. He commands a Centurion with such elegance and power," he stated towards her.

"Oh yes I remember. No no I'm not related to him. So what did you think of this guy called James Alexander? I heard he was pretty good..."

"Well, I never liked him or his style; I don't think he was really that good. I think he just had connections with higher people, I wouldn't have picked him to represent England," he said, cutting her off. Sarah just stood there thinking of nothing more than hitting him right in the middle of his face. She just counted her breaths and moved back sitting next to Darjeeling.

He leaned over to look over at Darjeeling. "Miss Darjeeling, I've heard rumours that Mr. Perkins offered to marry you… is there any truth in that?"

"Oh you make me laugh Mr. Takum. He could charm the knickers off a nun. But he could never offer me something I wanted," Darjeeling said.

"What? What was it?" he asked with baited breath.

"Fun." She added with a grin. "Looking after Miss English Breakfast here with her injuries, has only proven to me that, someone who would be battered and bruised everyday coming back from work, would be a tiresome process." Both Kay and the boy laughed. Sarah hated being the butt of the joke and so spoke up.

"I thought you liked being a nurse?" she whispered to Darjeeling.

"You just cannot have the same thing twice without being disappointed," Darjeeling quoted. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

* * *

**24th April JSF Battleground, 12:27**

The very light rolling hills covered in a light green grass, mixed in with the odd dark green bush or tree. Orange Pekoe looked out, knowing this match would be the hardest one to win. Her tanks moved to the base of one such hill, making sure the turrets of the tanks were just below the highest point of the hill and thus keeping them hidden from view.

"Your orders, Miss Orange Pekoe?" Rukuriri asked blankly. Orange Pekoe looked out, standing on top of the Churchill and scanned the surroundings with her binoculars.

"We hold here. If we expose ourselves we run the risk of Kuromornine's guns picking us off one at a time, like Miss English Breakfast said. Let them come to us; we have more of a chance at closer range."

"And for us?" Rosehip asked, champing at the bit as ever.

"You know the plan Rosehip," Orange Pekoe replied.

"Okay Miss Orange Pekoe, we will stick to the plan," Rosehip agreed.

"I still don't understand English Breakfast's plan," Green Gunpowder said to the crew in the Cromwell.

"Well, we have to use every advantage we have otherwise we will end up like all the other teams and get smashed." Jasmine Pearl responded, looking to her junior commander.

"I know, I know," Green Gunpowder said, waving off Jasmine's notion.

"Jasmine, Green Gunpowder has a point, we are in fast, nimble tanks with light armour. Staying in place is just inviting trouble," Peppermint interjected from the loader's side, looking over to her commander, who in turn nodded in appreciation.

She turned her gaze onto Jasmine, her stare as sharp as daggers. "We are just fish in a barrel here," Green Gunpowder said towards Jasmine. "Remember what we achieved against Ooarai?"

"But look what happened to us against Saunders. We need to play our cards right here," Jasmine countered.

"Let's see then," Green Gunpowder said as she moved her head to peer over the top of the open hatch. "As I think English Breakfast has got this all wrong."

"Tanks! Three Panthers heading due east close range!" came a call over the radio.

"It's time," Green Gunpowder said as she stood on the commander's chair looking over to the direction of the enemy Panthers.

"Are we all in position?" Orange Pekoe called out over the radio. A catalogue of confirmation calls came back her way.

"Okay, hold your positions and wait, let's stick to the plan," Orange Pekoe added as the Panthers clawed their tracks into the virgin grass, moving ever closer towards the hidden force.

The Panthers were pointing their cannons in all different directions, seemingly preparing for an ambush, but began to trundle up the slight incline.

"Hold it... hold it," Orange Pekoe commanded over the radio as the gun muzzle of the first tank came into sight over the lush green slope. The cannon grew and grew in size, as now the tracks and most importantly the lower plate of the panther came into view. "All tanks, fire."

All seven tanks fired, most hitting their mark. The Panther was white flagged before it even knew what had happened to it.

"Chindits take out the other two Panthers, quickly!"

"Yes Miss Orange Pekoe!" a jubilant Rosehip responded immediately. "Chindits ATTACK!" she cried as she pointed dead ahead with her small force advancing up the slope in a rapid advance. The Cromwell hit the light slope getting a small amount air from it.

"We will take the tank on the right! Its barrel is still facing away from us," Green Gunpowder said, dead set in making this Panther her first kill of the match. The Cromwell drove past the Panther, and skidded sideways parallel to the rear of the Kuromorimine tank.

The Panther commander, knowing what was about to happen, started to neutral steer, keeping the Cromwell's cannon off the rear of the Panther. But it was too little, too late, and the shell hit the engine block. The tank's surrender was duly noted with the thwapang of the raising flag.

"Aim for the tracks on the other one!" Gunpowder yelled down towards Jasmine over the loud noise of skirmish. But there was no need for as the Cromwell's turret spun, the three other Crusaders had taken the Panther apart, hitting the turret front, hull side and engine block with multiple six-pounder shells, giving the appearance of a pack of wild hyenas on a singular elephant. One shell finally set off the white flag.

"Chindits, fall back," Orange Pekoe ordered through the headphones of the Chindit commanders.

Rosehip picked up her microphone which was bouncing around her lap. She didn't see any enemies in the area but empty rolling fields. "But..."

"Rosehip!" Orange Pekoe interjected instantaneously.

Her previous scolding resonating in her memory, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Chindits fall back to our original position."

"This in not what the Chindits were meant for!" Green Gunpowder yelled out, throwing her microphone out her hand into the steel block of the breach, cracking the hard plastic shell of the microphone. "What would my Earl Grey think! Argh, this is all English Breakleg's fault!" she yelled whole heartedly into the turret, be damned the consequences.

* * *

**24th April JSF Battleground, 12:39**

The Panther force has been destroyed at B17, with all the enemy force there. Your orders ma'am?" The radio operator said leaning back and shouting up as well as holding her throat microphone towards the throne of Erika in the commander's seat.

"Gather all tanks. We can crush them. Five points is what we came for and that is what we will get,"Erika responded cooly. Remaining calm was something that Erika was finally coming to grips with, as under stressful battle conditions being hotheaded didn't really help the school win battles. Maho's training seemed to be seeping in.

"All tanks from up on me at D15," she ordered as she had a quick glance at the map to see which was the perfect place to get flanking shots and if needed to close the range and put their armour to the test.

Soon all the heavy tanks of Kuromorimine had arrived. The force consisted of with two Tiger 1, one Panther and a King Tiger for good measure. A truly fearsome force of hard-hitting firepower and even harder German steel. The tanks lined up line abreast and began their advance with Erika's King Tiger in the middle, readying for the crushing blow onto St Gloriana's flank.

"Enemies spotted. It looks to be their whole force, plus the flag tank," Erika said with a grin as she lowered her binoculars.

A bull crack whip of a sound echoed around the grassland. "I didn't order you to fire!"

"We haven't Eri..." The reply was cut off as a shell smashed into a Tiger I, white flagging it instantly.

"Eyes up! This is an ambush!" Erika blurted out, her coolness filter crashing to the wayside. "Any eyes on where it came from?!"

"Dead ahead but I don't know where," Kumoe exclaimed.

"Any smoke?" Erika asked as she scanned ahead of her, looking for the tank. The small pinhead of an orange glow seemed to grow larger and larger, now the size of a tennis ball dramatically grew in size to that of a watermelon. The sound arrived - another hard crack. The orb crashed hard into the sloped hull of Erika's King Tiger. The vibrations inside the tank were something else; as if the tank had been hit with a heavy hammer.

"That's a 17 pounder! Koume you said their Tog was out of action!" Erika yelled into her throat mic with her eardrums still ringing.

"It is! I swear!" Kurome yelled back.

"Lunchtime quick! Gunner - get the gun on their tanks a fire! All tanks fire!"

The 88mm and 75mm guns blazed to life, shells peppering the St Gloriana pocket.

* * *

**24th April JSF Battleground, 12:46**

Shells crashed all around as dirt flew up into the Orange Pekoe's face but, likea shark with blood in the water, Orange Pekoe didn't care one bit about her safety. "Excalibur knock out their flag tank! That's all we need!"

"Yes, Miss Pekoe!" the commander answered, soon followed by an almighty crack of a cannon emanating from to the far rear of the St Gloriana's force about a half-mile away. Orange Pekoe took a glance back at the slight ridgeline. Protruding above it was the well rounded Sherman turret and the long 17 pounder gun with its muzzle steaming. The dark green Firefly had brought that extra needed firepower that the St Gloriana's tanks were extremely lacking in.

She cracked her head back towards the Kuromornine stationary force as the waving black flag of Erika's King Tiger beckoned to be hit. The shell seemed to be blown off course by the wind, even though there was no wind to speak of whatsoever, missing the flag tank by quite some margin and nearly hitting the Panther angled side nearly ten meters to the right. The shell veered off, crashing into the ground as earth flew into the air.

"Miss Orange Pekoe, we are trying our best. But the sabot rounds... they don't always want to go where we aim for them to go," the Firefly commander put forward, with the bustle of loading and clanging metal being heard over the radio.

Orange Pekoe quickly came up with a plan. "Just keep up the pressure," she reassured the Firefly crew. "Chindits - we need to give Excalibur more time. Flank around the enemy. As fast as you can; we need to draw the fire off the ridge. Rukuriri - we need smoke here to cover our flag tank."

To the joy of the warmongers, the Chindits belted off, scattering in different directions with Green Gunpowder racing directly towards the steel beast with no fear whatsoever. Rukuriri's Matilda moved forward to deploy some smoke canisters from the side of the turret in front of the Churchill flag tank. The Matilda stopped just a couple meters ahead of the flag tank, launching the smoke canisters which hit the floor with a thud as they hissed with the white cloud slowly lifting upwards.

A last desperate Kuromorimine volley headed towards St Gloriana's tanks. Most seemed rushed and unaimed, some going high some impacting the ground way go early, but one shot steamed towards the small pocket of tanks. Orange Pekoe squinted her eyes trying her best to follow the flight of this shell though the light haze as this one looked like it would be close. The singular shell burst through the haze, the smoke whipping around violently in its wake, and headed straight towards Rukuriri's Matilda.

The shell made contact with the left side of the turret, gouging off the St Gloriana logo as the hard metal sheared off with a high pitch squeal. The shell, however, didn't fly up and off into the sky, but changed its course and, still at high velocity, headed directly towards the Churchill.

Orange Pekoe could do nothing but hope that the Churchill's armour could weather the storm. The shell's impact was violent, hitting the flat driver's porthole. Orange Pekoe held on for dear life as the 40-ton tank rocked and rolled as if it was a small fishing boat in a rough swell. Once the tank had settled down. She looked behind her to hopefully to not see what she imagined being there. Her eyes then landed on it; the white flag of the Churchill waving clear as day.

* * *

**The Spring League Tournament: Round 5 results**

Anzio Girls' High School 3-v-2 Ooarai Girls' Academy

Chi-Ha-Tan Academy 2-v-5 Saunders University High School

St. Gloriana Girls' College 2-v-3 Kuromorimine Girls' Academy

Pravda Girls' High School 5-v-2 BC Freedom High School

**The Spring League Tournament: League table after Round 5**

1st Pravda Girls' High School - 22

2nd Kuromorimine Girls' Academy - 21

3rd Ooarai Girls' Academy - 19

4th St. Gloriana Girls' College - 15

5th Saunders University High School - 14

6th BC Freedom High School - 9

7th Anzio Girls' High School - 7

8th Chi-Ha-Tan Academy - 4


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13- How things should be done**

* * *

**24th April, St. Gloriana sensha-do meeting room 16:12**

As was now usual in the Tea Garden, there was an argument going on. This time the subject was the tactics to be used for the upcoming match against Pravda, which was no doubt going to be tough.

"Look, I'm not saying it's without risk," Sarah suggested to the table full of tank commanders, but her point was really aimed squarely at the head of the table, Orange Pekoe. "I am saying it's the best way to pull off a quick victory."

"Just look at that road," Rosehip said. "It's high, straight and narrow. It's totally exposed. Any tanks going along it will be picked off like sitting ducks!" Her finger ran along one of the black wobbly lines on the map situated in the dead centre of the table.

"But consider the alternative" Sarah protested, pointing with her good arm at the map. "The only other way to get to Pravda's lines will be through the rocks here; through here which is low-lying and probably a bog; and then through this village. It's long and just as dangerous, and what's more, Pravda will be expecting us to come this way. We need a quick dash up the road into their lines! Like the cavalry, hmm?" Sarah tried to make a joke to raise some smiles, or possibly encourage Green Gunpowder to side with her proposal, but it didn't work. No one smiled.

"Why do we even need to get into their lines?" Rukuriri asked. "Why not just wait for them to come to us?"

This was immediately shot down not just by Sarah but by others too.

"Wait for the Russian steamroller to arrive?!"

"If we hold back, their heavy tanks will make mincemeat of us!" came a chorus of protests.

"Exactly, their IS-2s and KV-2 will tear us to shreds" Sarah said, making her point extremely clear. "No, we need to get in there quick and knock out their flag tank."

Orange Pekoe sighed and put her hands on the table. It was a tough decision to make and she knew she was the one who was going to have to make it.

"Because the road is so open and exposed, they will assume that we won't use it," she announced. "We will therefore have the element of surprise. I would expect the majority of their force, if not all of it, to be deployed around the village on the right. We'll therefore go straight up the road in one single column and then fan out when we reach point 278 here. We would have the high ground, and also be behind them," she said.

"They will only need one, at the most two, tanks or tank destroyers to cover that road" Rukuriri complained.

"Which is why we will lead with our own heavy-hitter; English Breakfast has finally got her tank a Challenger," Orange announced to the delight of the girls around the table, with Sarah holding back a smug smile. "But speaking of, I need to have a word with you Miss English Breakfast about using this tank." Orange Pekoe she said making beaming eye contact with her. "Ladies the meeting is over. Enjoy the rest of your day."

All the girls stood and left the tea room, leaving only Sarah and Orange Pekoe remaining in the otherwise empty room.

"Let me be clear I want you to participate in the match. But we have one problem. It being, you have to complete your safety test before being able to fight."

"Okay, that's fine I'll do it," Sarah said without hesitation.

"That's good to hear. We will head down to the training grounds and do the test " Orange Pekoe said rather excitedly.

They both walked or hobbled down towards the hangar housing the Cromwell that bore a Pegasus badge.

"Okay, get in, make yourself comfortable and wait for my whistle," Orange Pekoe said, displaying the whistle and the timer on her phone. Sarah obliged, timidly she began to climb up into the tank, finally coming to rest in the dark confines of the Cromwells turret, and sliding comfortably into the commander's seat.

On hearing footsteps on the hard concrete behind her, Orange Pekoe swiveled on the spot to see the brown long haired ponytail of Rukuriri swishing side to side. "You're making her do the test then?" the newcomer queried.

Orange Pekoe nodded.

"Why isn't she doing the test in her own tank?" Rukuriri questioned as she made her way to Orange Pekoe's side, with her arms crossed. Orange Pekoe said nothing and blew her whistle.

Sarah instantly pushed the hatch open, and shot her chest up through the hatch. Learning from her last mistake she put her good foot on the seat and then her bad one followed suit, with one big heave she pushed herself up and out of the tank, then guided herself off the front using the barrel as a handrail, finally hobbling the short distance as fast as she could to complete the test.

"She did better than before," Rukuriri said as blandly as a bottle of tap water. "Did she pass?"

Orange Pekoe looked down at the stopwatch on her phone, which was tilted so Rukuriri couldn't see it, frozen at the moment she had tapped the screen. It showed 31 seconds.

"Yes." Orange said firmly, deleting the time immediately.

"Are you sure, that looked a little slow," Rukuriri countered.

"The clock doesn't lie, and she passed," Orange Pekoe confirmed as she glared back at Rukuriri.

"Congratulations, Miss English Breakfast. You're back on the team!" she yelled over to Sarah who was hobbling her way over to the two girls.

"Yes!" Sarah exclaimed so chuffed with her effort that a large smile was forming on her face.

"I was thinking, Miss English, that you would need an experienced crew and a crew you can trust. So your girls Peppermint, Honeybush and Jasmine Pearl, will be allocated back to you," Orange said.

"Thank you, thank you," Sarah said, reaching out to give Orange Pekoe a hug. "They would be excited to use the Challenger! I still think it has that new tank smell," She added with a small grin.

"That's great to hear. I will have a word with Miss Green Gunpowder about this," her commander finished.

Sarah glanced over to Rukuriri who looked livid at every word Orange Pekoe said, but held her tongue.

* * *

**24th April, St. Gloriana Sensha-do Head Office 18:03**

Sarah stood outside of the grand oak doors of Orange Pekoe's office. Inside the office were Orange Pekoe and St. Gloriana's young ace, Green Gunpowder. The thickness of the oak doors made hearing what was being said extremely hard to understand, but it was a lot of muffled yelling, although from only one person.

"Fine then!" Green Gunpowder bellowed slamming the oak doors wide open. "Ah here is the bitch in question!" Her eyes fixed on her target as she yelled at Sarah. "Taking my crew away from me. Just because you have your own tank. Woopty do. I wonder if Darjeeling knows you shag Orange Pekoe on the side just to get your way?" she blurted out. "Who am I kidding; she most likely approves! That blonde bimbo," Green Gunpowder said with a vile hiss.

Sarah stared down at her and just looked at her, rather stunned at the audacity of such smears being thrown her way. Both held each other's gaze, waiting for the other to budge.

After a long moment Green made her move. "Fuck you and fuck Orange Pekoe. This school is going down the drain with you two at the helm and I'm not going to be on this sinking ship. I won't ever fight for you two ever again!"Ashe yelled as she stormed off down the stairs.

Sarah's eyes followed her watching her to the last step, where Green Gunpowder stopped and yelled. "ALL THE GIRLS WILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" She then marched out of the manor house.

* * *

**25th April, St. Gloriana training field, 15:22**

"I know you guys are looking forward to training with my tank," Sarah was saying to her returned crew. They came to a lone tank shed; a dark green, corrugated steel hanger, like a large Anderson shelter with the customary worn wooden sliding doors. Its size was only big enough to fit one medium sized tank at a push. "So here she is," Sarah said as the Challenger was exposed to the light in its shed.

"Meh," Honeybush shrugged.

"What? What's wrong with it?" Sarah asked, turning back to the light brown hair, double pigtailed girl.

"It's not as fast as the Cromwell and with the weight it will be more sluggish."

"Have you driven one before?" Sarah asked.

Honeybush remained silent.

"Then don't jump to conclusions. Um, Peppermint the turret is meant for two loaders for the 17 pounder. You think you can..."

"Yes it will be fine," Peppermint responded blankly, moving past Sarah as if she was a shadow on the floor, with Honeybush following in Peppermint's footsteps.

Sarah moved over to Jasmine who still remained by Sarah's side. "What's wrong with those two?" she asked in a low tone of voice.

"They don't like how you treated Green Gunpowder in the meeting yesterday," Jasmine answered.

"She was still to use the Cromwell. Orange Pekoe thought it best to have an experienced crew use this tank against Pravda..."

"Yes I know but they have the utmost respect for her and her achievements…" Jasmine looked as the other two got comfortable sliding into their positions, "... I would ask you to say sorry to them,"

"No. Why would I?" She sighed and shook her head. "They just don't understand, but thank you Jasmine for telling me, I knew I could trust you of all people." Sarah then placed her hand on the muzzle break of the 17 pounder. "You'll have to tell me how well this fires compared to a 75 on a Panther."

Jasmine looked at her a little perplexed. "How did…"

"Erika told me. But hey, you must just forgot to tell me. No biggy,"

* * *

**26th April, St. Gloriana school building, 11:55**

"Thank you sir," Sarah said leaving her history classroom. It was now a common custom for all the teachers to let her out slightly earlier than the other students, if she was to leave on time she would never make it to her next class on time, and in the process slow everyone else down in the corridors. Hopping down the stairs from the floor above, a girl wearing a black bow, clinging to a couple of books close to her chest walked past her heading down towards the library.

"Assam! I need your help with something," Sarah she asked in a rather loud whisper.

Assam stopped, she spun around to face the cripple climbing up the last step holding onto the railing for dear life, "Of course. Do you need a hand?"

"No, no, I'm good," Sarah said as she lifted her bad foot onto the floor of the corridor.

"What can I help you with?"

"I need your help…" Sarah's voice quieted to a hush. "I think Orange Pekoe is a spy,"

Taking a strong grip of her books with one hand, she moved her free hand and began to pat Sarah's head. "Funny joke; I'll give you a better one..." Assam cleared her throat, "Did you know Karl Marx had a sister, and she invented the starter pistol. Her name was Onyar." She waited for a response of laughter, but nothing came back from Sarah. "So is that all?"

"No no I'm serious about this, I think she is," Sarah said a little more firmly. Assam looked around the corridor which was still bustling with students walking. Assam moved past Sarah to a classroom door. She opened it to see it was empty, looking back to Sarah she nodded her head and entered the classroom. Sarah followed her in, and Assam closed the door after she entered.

"Look you know I'm not allowed to get involved with the Sensha-do team any more. Darjeeling isn't getting involved so I won't," the third year girl explained.

"Assam, please. She wanted us to lose to Kuromorimine on purpose. She did everything in her power to stop us using the Firefly. And she's been acting really weird since that Ooarai match," Sarah argued.

Assam put her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Being the commander isn't just about commanding the team. There are more things that happen behind closed doors that force her hand," she explained.

"Are you sure Assam? I trust you more than anyone else. Please don't lie to me about this. So you vouch for Orange Pekoe?"

"Yes. But… Before I moved on there was information regarding a spy in St. Gloriana. She goes by the name of Redwing. My suggestion to Rukuriri was to find her and turn her into a double agent. I'm guessing you know about Operation Double Cross." Sarah nodded back in recognition.

"We have done this many many times. There's a reason why I knew so much," Assam smiled.

"Ok. Um, thank you Assam." Sarah said with a bow.

"No problem. And anyway how's Darjeeling's cooking?" Assam asked cheekily. Sarah just shook her head. Assam, as quick as ever in reading the signals, carried on. "Hopefully, the sex makes up for it" she smirked. Sarah turned bright red.

* * *

**27th April, JSF battlefield, 13:13**

Sarah's beret blew lightly in the wind caused by the Challenger moving at speed, binoculars at hand.

"Any tanks spotted?" Orange Pekoe asked.

"Nothing, all is clear." The plan was coming to fruition, and the hill was coming into sight only six minute's drive away, and only a couple of houses to pass about 800 meters away, then it would all be smooth sailing.

"Miss English this is going great! We can beat Pravda!" Peppermint exclaimed with great abundance of glee. Sarah felt a little warmth tingle inside of her, finally it felt like her crew was back as a team again. She looked up to the houses on the right of the road, but something didn't sit right. A black snub tube seemed to stick out in-between the houses.

"Peppermint AP. Jasmine, aim for the houses. Honeybush, slow down a tad," she commanded lifting her binoculars. The clanging of metal came from inside, followed by the cry: "Clear to fire."

"We may have contact with an enemy tank in between the houses," she explained. Sarah's sights landed on a familiar shape as a sloped T-34-85 rolled out turning its turret towards Sarah's Challenger.

"Stop! Enemy tank! 800 meters!"

The tank lurched to a halt.

"Firing!" The bullwhip crack of the gun shot the projectile out with Sarah watching the shell come into view slamming into the side of the T-34-85's angled hull..

"Hit! White flag!" Sarah added as a rare satisfied grin filled her face.

"Why have we stopped?" Rukuriri questioned in a slightly annoyed tone which could not be missed to anyone listening. Before Sarah could ask Peppermint to change the set to speak with the other tanks, a call from Rosehip brought shivers down the whole of her spine.

"TANKS ON THE FLANKS!"

Sarah leapt up to look to the right out of the commander's cupola. She instinctively straightened her left leg as she moved, and there was a sudden horrible crunching sensation in her knee as she did so. She screamed and fell down, sliding back into the tank.

"ENGLISH, ARE YOU OK?!" Jasmine yelled over the screams, catching Sarah's head just before it could hit the cold hard steel of the huge 17 pounder gun breach.

"WE HAVE TO MOVE NOW!" Rukuriri bellowed over the radio.

Jasmine fubbled trying to grab the microphone once she took a firm grasp, she switched the radio to the B set and responded to Rukuriri. "Miss English is injured," she yelled. A hesitant Jasmine bumbled back with Sarah's sobs of pain being heard over the radio transmissions.

"We have to move now!" Rukuriri again shrieked as Sarah, incapacitated by pain, rested against the breach with Peppermint shaking her head.

BANG! A metal thud hit the Challenger's turret and the sound of the white flag raising followed immediately after.

Three more thuds crashed into the sides of other tanks in the column from both sides of the elevated road. Knocking out the rear most tank and the two bracketing Matilda's in front and behind Orange Pekoe's Churchill Flag tank. "Ambu.." Orange Pekoe yelled over the radio scanning the horizon with her binoculars, before she had even finished her words an unstoppable beam of light crashed into the Churchill's side, and the flag raised. The massacre was over before it had even begun. IS-2s and T-34-85s rolled out from in between shrubbery and other hiding spots on both sides of the road, The whole of the Pravda team was here. The Pravda crews dismounted and began to celebrate the victory as if they had just won the whole tournament.

Rukuriri stormed out of her tank and climbed up towards the Challenger, looking down into the open commander's hatch. "YOU! YOU LOST US THIS MATCH! THIS WHOLE TOURNAMENT!" she yelled down at Sarah, who looked helplessly up at Rukuriri.

"No ... I couldn't, I..." Sarah said back, pleading with Rukuriri.

"YES YOU DID! If we had Green Gunpowder instead of you, we had a chance. But you forced Orange Pekoe's hand. If she was here she wouldn't have done something so stupid!" The whole of Sarah's crew looked over to Sarah, all of their faces said a thousand words, but the most obvious expression was one of disgust.

"Shut up Rukuriri! Leave me alone" Sarah yelled back covering her crying face as she did. Rukuriri's footsteps vibrated around the hollow turret, with her climbing off and walking back kicking some of the fragmented metal that was thrown off by the hit of the shell's impact on the Challenger.

"Sarah. Is it true? Did you force Green Gunpowder out? Or just take her place? I … I just don't get what's really happening behind the scenes," Jasmine asked somewhat controlled but rather on the side of her friend Sarah, over a fuming Rukuriri.

Sarah knew it was serious; she couldn't lie about this, it would destroy the already crumbling team morale. It didn't help that Jasmine only ever used her real name if it was absolutely serious. "I would never lie to you or this whole crew, you are some of my most trusted friends..." The silence spoke for itself. As the light from the open turret hatch slowly began to fade, she looked across to her crew; from the driver's compartment then slowly rolling her head over to the loader's side, then across to Jasmine. She could feel the burning stare burrowing in her skull "I never asked for Green to be removed from the team. I swear," Sarah voiced into the void.

"You know what Miss 'English'. I'm not buying this. Gunpowder gave us hope, she would do anything to win. If she was in your position, not being fit to fight, she would have not fought at all! Nor get someone more capable kicked out!" Peppermints bark echoed around the hollow tank. Sarah just listened, trying to still make sense of what was happening while lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the turret basket. Before she could muster a plea, Honeybush lifted open the hatch, climbing out of the tank. The sound of the drivers hatch being open and a couple moments later, the hatch was slammed down internally hard.

Sarah looked up to the last crew member in the Challenger, the light from the open hatch perfectly covered Jasmine making her look like a biblical saint as Sarah lay at her feet. "...please don't go..."

Now only Jasmine was left. "I don't know what happened, but I know you don't lie," Jasmine's tanned hands opened offering an escape from the turret basket. Sarah grabbed her hands as Jasmine helped her to the commander's seat.

* * *

**A/N: **A massive thanks to the people who proofread this chapter as I and Sharky just needed a fresh pair of eyes on this chapter in particular as big things are planned in the near future.


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